COMPOSERS: Rózsa
LABELS: ASV Gold
ALBUM TITLE: Rózsa
WORKS: Cello Concerto; Sinfonia Concertant for Violin & Cello
PERFORMER: Raphael Wallfisch (cello), Philippe Graffin (violin); BBC Concert Orchestra/ Barry Wordsworth
CATALOGUE NO: GLD 4018
Like all the finest composers for the
cinema – Korngold, Herrmann, Rota
– Miklós Rózsa kept one foot in the
concert hall. As well as nearly 100
film scores written between 1937
and 1981, he left a sizeable body of
works in virtually every medium bar
opera. He had a particular penchant
for the concerto, writing seven, if we
include his 1943 Concerto for Strings
and the Spellbound Concerto derived
from the Hitchcock film score. Both
the Cello Concerto (written for Janos
Starker) and the Sinfonia concertante
(effectively a double concerto for
Heifetz and Piatigorsky) were
written in the 1960s, in the distinctly
Hungarian-imbued style Rózsa
reserved for his concert works.
Raphael Wallfisch has clearly
taken this music to heart, giving
a big-boned, expressive reading of
the Cello Concerto that makes one
wonder why it hasn’t become as
popular as, say, the Walton. He finds
his equal in Philippe Graffin in the
Sinfonia concertante – their octave
melodies are beautifully sustained
and there’s plenty of give and take
throughout (unlike Heifetz and
Piatigorsky’s original collaboration,
which reportedly descended into
diva-ish bickering). The BBC
Concert Orchestra is caught in virile
form and the Walthamstow Town
Hall acoustic lends the recording
plenty of presence. Matthew Rye