Phantasy in Blue De Falla: Siete canciones populares españolas (arr. Gottschick); Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (arr. Malzew); Shostakovich: Waltz No. 2 (arr. Fontaine); Elegy (arr. Atovmian); Prelude ‘Guitars’ (arr. Atovmian); Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme (arr. Malzew); Vivaldi: Cello Concerto in A minor, RV418 (arr. Sobol) Alban Gerhardt (cello), Alliage Quintett Hyperion CDA68419 68:17 mins
Vivaldi’s Cello Concerto in A minor with saxophone quartet and piano? It’s a stretch, even with a cellist of the stature of Alban Gerhardt, and a quintet with the creative subtlety of the young Alliage. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should: I missed the connective string tissue in Itai Sobol’s arrangement, with Gerhardt’s fiery line neutralised by the quintet. Sebastian Gottschick relies even more on the piano for his take on De Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas , though there are spellbinding moments: keening spirals of soprano sax drift around ‘Asturias’ melody like bird calls, while Gerhardt’s lullaby burns through a transparent pianissimo haze in ‘Nana’.
Piano takes on many of the string figurations in Stefan Malzew’s version of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. In Variation 3, however, an alto sax sings the cello’s gorgeous melody, which feels wrong, if pleasingly sonorous. As the ear adjusts to the glassy cool of the sax chords, we are plunged into a smoke-filled noir scene for Variation 6, ‘Bluesando’, with jazz walking bass and sinuous improvisation. Here Malzew reveals his hand: playing fast and loose with this cherished score, tongue firmly in cheek. An uproarious finale, deliciously delivered by Gerhardt, culminates in a blaze of alien harmonies.
The pièce de la résistance is Malzew’s arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody – now Phantasy – in Blue, an inspired instrumental synthesis: raucous, sassy, percussive and truly in the spirit of the jazz age. The cello steals the clarinet’s opening solo, and gradually invades the piano’s position. It works. Malzew hits the jackpot with a chamber version of a classic score to knock out a summer festival audience.
Helen Wallace
