Alisa Weilerstein: Elgar/Carter cello concertos with Barenboim

[Dave2002]

Alisa was on In Tune this evening. I have heard her before [in Joseph Hallman's concerto], but I thought her performance of Bach was rushed. Pity, as I really want to like this performer. Perhaps I should try to get a chance to listen to her Carter concerto, cw Elgar. [http://open.spotify.com/track/2VvNxMxPIGiLTrAEH3e000 ]

[Barbirollians]

I have finally got round to listening to this recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto . Weilerstein has a rich dark tone that is not in anyway similar to that of Jacqueline du Pre but this is not a hair shirt performance at all . Indeed , it is a full throated romantic rendering of the concerto that those who like restrained Elgar will not like I suspect .

Barenboim accompanies expertly and with proper feeling . I imagine , that this will be a recording that is more likely to appeal to du Pre fans for its wholehearted approach than fans of very restrained accounts such as Watkins - indeed in some places there is a mittelEurope atmosphere about the interpretation that romantic in a Strauss like sense almost rather than the more singing very English du Pre/Barbirolli style.

Very occasionally in the Adagio I felt she was laying things on a bit thick but I have enjoyed it very much . It is very well played , definitely different a real ear opener for how it links Elgar in with the late romantic European tradition.

[akiralx]

Yesterday I bought the Slatkin Elgar box which includes Starker's version. I disliked it when I first heard it a few years ago but it sounded fairly good.

[gurnemanz]

I don't know it but have just seen that it is BBC mag Recording of the Year

[pastoralguy]

For me, her interpretation of the Dvorak concerto is, by a long way, my favourite.

[PJPJ]

For me, her interpretation of the Dvorak concerto is, by a long way, my favourite.

This one?



I look forward to hearing it.

[pastoralguy]

This one?



I look forward to hearing it.

Yes. I was lucky enough to get one from an Amazon supplier back in February for a fiver! After the comparative disappointment of the Isserlis version this was a real ear opener. (Not that there was anything wrong with Isserlis, it's just a pity he got such poor support from his CONductor).

[visualnickmos]

If you don't like the Barbirolli( something I find about as comprehensible as not liking beautiful spring days or fine red wine ) I doubt you will appreciate the Philadelphia/Barenboim .

What more is there to be said.

[PJPJ]

Yes. I was lucky enough to get one from an Amazon supplier back in February for a fiver! After the comparative disappointment of the Isserlis version this was a real ear opener. (Not that there was anything wrong with Isserlis, it's just a pity he got such poor support from his CONductor).

Thanks for the recommendation - I do have the Elgar/Carter and find that an impressive release, not that it erases by any means my love for Wallfisch, Isserlis and Pini to name but three.

[cloughie]

And there was I thinking him a Bloch-head.

A good whach with a rhythm stick should sort him!

[Barbirollians]

I found the Elliott Carter unusually accessible for him . Still didn;t warm to it much.

PG has given her a lot to live up to in the Dvorak . Though I am not sure we see eye to eye on that piece

[BBMmk2]

I find that that this could grow on me. Maybe a masterpiece, like the Elgar.

[Barbirollians]

The Weilerstein Elgar really is very good indeed and is growing on me. It is , however, in my opinion much more of the full throated romantic approach of du Pre - than the self-consciously restrained like Tortelier/Boult and Watkins/Davis.

That is her real individuality - really going for it in this work but not sounding at all like a pale imitation of du Pre.

[Tony Halstead]

Yesterday I bought the Slatkin Elgar box which includes Starker's version. I disliked it when I first heard it a few years ago but it sounded fairly good.

'fairly good'...
My left cheek still stings with the memory of my rather earnestly telling my very first girlfriend that I was 'tepidly in love' with her, and of course the slap that ensued..

[Barbirollians]

'fairly good'...
My left cheek still stings with the memory of my rather earnestly telling my very first girlfriend that I was 'tepidly in love' with her, and of course the slap that ensued..

Reminds me of the first four lines of an Alice Walker poem

I’m really very fond of you, he said.
I don’t like fond. It sounds like something you would tell a dog.
Give me love, or nothing.
Throw your fond in a pond, I said.