BaL 21.06.14 - Elgar's Cello Concerto

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Another excellent BaL (that makes about six or seven in a row) - and I'm especially grateful in that it's made me question my lack of great enthusiasm for the work that I mentioned earlier: heard in extracts like this reminded me how many wonderful moments there are - and how malleable to different readings it is. It also reminded me how wonderful are both du Pre recordings. I was surprised at the final choice - I thought she was going to go for the Wispelwey: I know I am genuinely new and valid insights into how the Music can be performed from soloist and orchestra. I wasn't that keen on the Mork - the bits that were played suggested rather a one-sighted view of how the piece should go: I'll listen on Monday to hear the whole concept. But so many good recordings!

Oh, and, yes - if it's been recorded in my lifetime, it ain't "historic"!

[EdgeleyRob]

Du Pre being the historic choice makes me suddenly feel old.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I thought that it was perhaps a slip of the tongue, and she intended not "historical" but "hysterical".

Just before I take cover while they chuck things at you, Bryn, I'll just say that if one is going to party poop, one's party pooping should be of this premium standard.


Okay, chaps: open chuck!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Another excellent BaL (that makes about six or seven in a row) - and I'm especially grateful in that it's made me question my lack of great enthusiasm for the work that I mentioned earlier: heard in extracts like this reminded me how many wonderful moments there are - and how malleable to different readings it is.

Agreed. As a "presenter" she would not have fulfilled Radio 3's popular brief, but who cares, with such obvious expertise and understanding.

It also reminded me how wonderful are both du Pre recordings.

Six at the last count.

Oh, and, yes - if it's been recorded in my lifetime, it ain't "historic"!

Absolutely, and if the sound quality is as good as the 1965 Du Pre it ain't historic either. This was the only real gaff of this week's BaL.

[Bryn]

Pre-Dolby (by a year or so), it's certainly not a modern recording. There again, being pre-Dolby has maybe made digital noise reduction that easier a task. Magnetic tape coatings have advanced somewhat since 1965 too. Good for it's time, but well old for sure.

[visualnickmos]

Du Pre being the historic choice makes me suddenly feel old.

Phew - not just me then!

[Sir Velo]

Helen Wallace is the BBC Music Magazine's Consulting Editor and certainly seems to be on the preferred roster for the cello repertoire. Regular forumites will remember her BALs on Beethoven's Op.102 no.1 and the Chopin cello sonata. Good to see someone who neither feels the need to be an iconoclast or a slavish follower of received wisdom when it comes to this work.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Good for it's time, but well old for sure.

Well, enough about me - what about the duPre/Barbirolli?

[visualnickmos]

Well, enough about me - what about the duPre/Barbirolli?

Great BaL, this one, but I think putting du Pre/Barbirolli in the 'historical' bracket is perhaps, pushing the bounds a little too far! Anyway, a small point of no real material importance.

[verismissimo]

I thought that HW's comment that the LSO under Barbirolli doesn't reflect du Pre's use of portamento (as Elgar's orchestra does for Beatrice Harrison) was very illuminating. Still too much sense in the 1960s (as now) that portamento is a bit vulgar. Perhaps we'll get over it in due course.

Turning to the use of vibrato, to my ears it was Wispelwey who most closely matched Harrison. Quite lovely, I thought.

[Sir Velo]

Well the du Pre/barbirolli is coming on for fifty years old now - so possibly historical isn't so wide of the mark. If most of us had been told in the 80s that Elgar's recording with Harrison was historical I dont suppose many of us would have skipped a beat.

[visualnickmos]

Turning to the use of vibrato, to my ears it was Wispelwey who most closely matched Harrison. Quite lovely, I thought.

Me too. Wispelwey is a cellist I know of only by name. But he did sound lovely, indeed. Might investigate further....

[Bryn]

Me too. Wispelwey is a cellist I know of only by name. But he did sound lovely, indeed. Might investigate further....

He's a very fine cellist indeed. His various recordings of the Bach Suites and Beethoven Piano and Cello sonatas are well worth investigating too. I have his Elgar in a boxed set of concertos etc. Let, that too is worth seeking out.

Just for the record, I used to have a bit of a crush on Jackie when a teenager. Damn it, I even saved up to buy her LP of the Delius Cello Concerto. I've only got 4 or 5 of her different recordings/recorded performances of the Elgar. Watching her throw herself about on the DVD with BBCSO does, I feel, lend credence to my earlier quip re. historical/hysterical, eh?

[gurnemanz]

Helen Wallace is the BBC Music Magazine's Consulting Editor and certainly seems to be on the preferred roster for the cello repertoire.

She reviewed the Mørk disc in the BBC mag

[visualnickmos]

.....Watching her throw herself about on the DVD with BBCSO does, I feel, lend credence to my earlier quip re. historical/hysterical, eh?

You really are firing on all cylinders at the moment, Bryn! I've noticed that over the last few weeks..... whatever it is, it must be good....