Name: Lalo & Saint-Saëns: Cello Concertos
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It says much for the Saint-Saens concerto that it stands up well to such inspired competition. — BBC Music Magazine, September 2013, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 29th Apr 2013
Catalogue No: ONYX4107
Label: Onyx
Length: 63 minutes

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Lalo: Cello Concerto in D minor

Work length26:59

Pieter Wispelwey, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Seikyo Kim

I. Prélude: Lento – Allegro maestoso

Track length13:25

II. Intermezzo: Andantino con moto – Allegro presto–Andantino con moto – Allegro

Track length6:00

III. Finale: Andante – Allegro vivace

Track length7:34

Berlioz: Roméo and Juliet, Part II: 3. Love Scene

Work length4:41

Pieter Wispelwey, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Seikyo Kim

Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 119

Work length15:39

Pieter Wispelwey, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Seikyo Kim

I. Allegro moderato e maestoso

Track length3:40

Andante sostenuto

Track length9:31

II. Allegro non troppo

Track length2:28

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Composer Guides, Camille Saint-Saëns

James explores the music of French composer Camille Saint-Saëns and chooses some of his favourite recordings.

After a highly acclaimed recording of Briten’s Cello Symphony (ONYX4058) Pieter Wispelwey and the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiko Kim, turn to two romantic cello concertos whose neglect is hard to fathom.

Lalo, unusually for a French composer in the mid 19th century, was drawn to chamber music, and formed a string quartet (in which he played viola, and later second violin) that championed the works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. His passion for chamber music developed to embrace large scale orchestral works – two violin concertos, the famous 'Symphonie espagnole' for violin and orchestra, a symphony in G minor, the Piano Concerto and the concerto recorded here: the Cello concerto in D minor of 1877. A strong work in the Germanic tradition, the central movement combines a slow movement and scherzo. Its comparative neglect in the concert hall is difficult to understand as it is an impressive and well made work, worthy of his contemporaries Franck and Saint-Saëns.

The latter’s second cello concerto from 1902 is totally overshadowed by his impressive and dazzling first concerto dating from 1872. The later work has all of the composer’s flair for style, elegance and is possibly more challenging for the soloist than its A minor sibling.

Reviews

September 2013

It says much for the Saint-Saens concerto that it stands up well to such inspired competition.

September 2013

I am charmed by Wispelwey’s playing in the Lalo, I am bowled over by this performance of Saint-Saens asks of him, the multiple-stopping, the passages at the very top of the cello’s range, and so on- Wispelwey’s tone remains centered and mellifluous. Furthermore, he is an intelligent, stylish musician who makes the music interesting.

7th November 2013

[the Lalo] is an underrated piece and the performance given here is extremely fine...Wispelwey is in great form, ably supported by the orchestra and Seikyo Kim...The cello is recorded with clarity and possesses a slight cutting edge...The solo playing is immaculate.

A fiery, rhythmically incisive performance from cellist Peter Wispelwey and the Flanders Symphony Orchestra under Seiko Kim. Wispelwey is equally at home in the yearning phrases of the central Andante sostenuto as he is in the fiendish passagework and double-stopping of the last movement.

16th June 2013

[the Lalo] gets a passionate, committed account from Wispelwey and the Flanders orchestra...The excellent band, under Seiko Kim, display their expressive qualities in a rapt account of the Scène d’amour from Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette.

18th July 2013

as Wispelwey's performance shows, [the Saint-Saëns is] a fine piece in its own right, though with more of a sentimental heart than his playing brings out. He's more in his element in the rugged solo writing in the Lalo, which opens in the most sombre D minor...but then gradually reveals a more relaxed, good-humoured side.

23rd May 2013

the chief focuses of this disc lie in Wispelwey’s passionate advocacy of the Lalo and the Saint-Saëns...with the weight of expression assigned to the central Andante movement [of the Lalo] where Wispelwey’s mellow tone and mellifluous phrasing colour the music with exquisite refinement and subtle shading

Lalo & Saint-Saëns: Cello Concertos

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Composer Guides, Camille Saint-Saëns

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