Erling Blöndal Bengtsson (cello)
A Tribute: The Danish Radio Recordings 1958-1998 - Volume 2
Nina Kavtaradze (piano) (Schumann and Fauré)
Endre Wolf (violin), Jennifer Nuttall (viola) (Koppel & Roussel)
Elisabeth Sigurdsson (clarinet), Anker Blyme (piano) (Thybo)
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra/Norman Del Mar (Bloch)
rec. 1958-1998
DANACORD DACOCD845 [75:09 + 70:40]
Danacord continues to pay handsome tribute to cellist Erling Blöndal Bengtsson in its sequence of reclamations from radio archives. Once again this twofer (for the price of one) uses Danish Radio recordings, ranging in date over four decades, from 1958 to 1998. The repertoire covers solo cello works, duos, trios and one orchestral piece. It’s especially finely focused on solo cello pieces.
Schumann’s Fantasiestücke was taped in 1995, with his daughter in law pianist, Nina Kavtaradze; the bowing is under perfect control, tone colours are rich but calibrated, and virtuosity is unshowy. Fauré’s Elegie is sensitively phrased. The sequence of solo cello works begins with Bentzon’s Solo Sonata, Op.110 in by some way the earliest recorded performance, dating from February 1958. This stalking, abrasive work reaches its peak of intensity in the melancholy fissures of its third movement, movingly but stoically projected here. The lively acoustic of Stoense Kirke houses Jan Maegaard’s 1997 Solo Sonata in which there are incremental additions of powerful expressive intensity after the opening dramas. One can hear the cellist’s anticipatory sniffs.
Composed in 1950, Gunnar Berg’s Suite for solo cello was taped in 1981. Each movement is patterned after a Baroque dance form but they aren’t dainty terpsichorean examples; the music is by contrast, gutsy, austere, but with folk-like elements, some – I’m thinking of the Courante – reminiscent of Hardanger fiddling. Pawky comic elements leaven any gritty impressions; this is a valuable work, beautifully played in perfectly acceptable mono. Cassadó’s Suite for solo cello is one of the biggest and best-known of all these pieces. It allows also for more cantilena and overt projection from the cellist and Bengtsson certainly catches its vivid fantasia spirit in the Spanish skirl, its associated pianissimos and the zesty rhythmic humour of its Sardana.
Herman D Koppel’s Divertimento for string trio and Roussel’s Trio, Op.58 allow the participation of Endre Wolf and his violist wife Jennifer Nuttal in 1973 performances. The Koppel has rarefied sonorities and a sense of pulsing drive whilst the Roussel is ever beguiling, clear, generously proportioned, with a spirit sense of engagement. Rather different is Leif Thybo’s Trio for clarinet, cello and piano. Bengtsson was a committed exponent of the composer’s music – Thybo’s Cello Concerto appears in the next volume in this series – but he’s not always the most ingratiating of composers and nor, perhaps, would he have wished to have been. Finally, there is Bloch’s Schelomo, with the Aarhus Symphony directed by Norman Del Mar in September 1985 (a classic typo has converted this conductor’s first name to ‘Normal’ on the back of the jewel case). Together soloist and conductor ratchet tension and draw out the vivid Hebraic qualities of the music.
Bengtsson proves an eloquent and technically adroit exponent of all these works and his associates and colleagues ensure the success of yet another finely restored example of this cherished artist’s radio discography.
Jonathan Woolf
Previous review: John France
Contents
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Fantasiestücke op. 73 (1849) [11:10]
Niels Viggo BENTZON (1919-2000)
Solo sonata op. 110 (1956) [17:46]
Jan MAEGAARD (1926-2012)
Solo sonata op. 103 (1997) [16:00]
Gunnar BERG (1909-1989)
Suite for solo cello (1950) [14:26]
Gaspar CASSADŇ (1897-1966)
Suite for solo cello (1926) [15:22]
Herman D. KOPPEL (1908-1998)
Divertimento for string trio op. 91 (1972) [14:29]
Albert ROUSSEL (1869-1937)
Trio op. 58 (1937) [13:31]
Leif THYBO (1922-2001)
Trio for clarinet, cello and piano (1962) [14:36]
Gabriel FAURÉ (1845-1925)
Élégie in C minor, op. 24 (1880) [6:25]
Ernest BLOCH (1880-1959)
Schelomo: Rhapsodie hébraďque for cello and orchestra (1916) [21:13]
