Encores

‘I don’t try to imitate Pablo Casals,’ writes Alban Gerhardt of this disc of the great Catalan’s encores, ‘but I do follow his approach when playing pieces of this kind, treating them with the same care, intelligence, love and sensitivity as one would a newly discovered piece by Beethoven.’ He and the superb Cecile Licad are wholly successful in this endeavour from the outset.

Our rating

5

Published: January 20, 2012 at 4:38 pm

COMPOSERS: Boccherini,Chopin,Debussy,Elgar,Faure,Godard,Granados,Kreisler,Lassen,Popper,Saint-Saens,Wagner etc
LABELS: Hyperion
WORKS: Cello works by Boccherini, Chopin, Debussy, Elgar, Fauré, Godard, Granados, Kreisler, Lassen, Popper, Saint-Saëns, Wagner etc
PERFORMER: Boccherini, Chopin, Debussy, Elgar, Fauré, Godard, Granados, Kreisler, Lassen, Popper, Saint-Saëns, Wagner etc
CATALOGUE NO: Hyperion CDA67831

‘I don’t try to imitate Pablo Casals,’ writes Alban Gerhardt of this disc of the great Catalan’s encores, ‘but I do follow his approach when playing pieces of this kind, treating them with the same care, intelligence, love and sensitivity as one would a newly discovered piece by Beethoven.’ He and the superb Cecile Licad are wholly successful in this endeavour from the outset. Popper’s gloriously effervescent Chanson villageoise is a revelation: it’s just the sort of recital piece we hear so little in concerts these days, which needs both high seriousness and a certain breezy charm to come off. I was reminded of the elegance of Pierre Fournier, and the cool brilliance of János Starker at his height, except that Gerhardt has a honeyed, liquid tone all his own.

He has created a well-contrasted programme that clearly took a long time to research and hone. From Godard’s poignant and beautiful Berceuse de Jocelyn, the veiled passion of Edward MacDowell’s Romanze, a brilliantly impertinent Serenata napoletana by Sgambati to the absorbing depths of Fauré’s Après un rêve, each work is presented with stylish devotion. Gerhardt resurrected some real gems: Falla’s Nana in an arresting, ghostly arrangement by Maurice Maréchal is mesmerising, with Gerhardt achieving a floating, grainy timbre a world away from the ultra-focused purity of his line in Boccherini. Casal’s own arrangement of Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude achieves an extraordinary orchestral intensity. ‘Old-fashioned’, maybe, but a tour de force here. This is cello playing of exquisite sophistication and bold imagination. Casals, I feel sure, would have approved. Helen Wallace

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