January 7, 2018

  • Two Monumental 20th-Century Cello Concerti

     

    Lutoslawski and Dutilleux: Cello Concertos
    Johannes Moser, cello.  Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Thomas Sondergard
    Pentatone 5186 689
    Total Time:  53:52
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has been working his way through the cello concerto repertoire on Pentatone since 2015.  The present release brings the award-winning cellist to two towering works of the latter 20th Century from two quite different but most significant musical aesthetics.  Both works were composed in 1970 which makes the pairing here all the more fascinating.  Mstislav Rostropovich, who commissioned and premiered both these works.  His 1974 recordings are often the standard upon which one bases those which come after.

    Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) tends to write dramatic music that, even in its most dissonant moments, captures the imagination.  Often the music’s metrical aspects and complexity are not as easy to discern but they are there, often coupled with intriguing chromaticism.  The Cello Concerto seems poised at this shift to the composer’s more lyrical music while still maintaining an interest in rather sparse orchestral textures that eventually gain in intensity until they practically drown out the solo in the finale.  The four movement work has a lengthy “Introduction” that is essentially an insistent cello solo on a single pitch.  This pulse with become an integral linking factor in the work.  The orchestra gradually begins to emerge by the third movement “Cantilena” with the singing cello line contrasting to dense clusters of harmony and aleatoric ideas now becoming strikingly apparent.  The explosion of orchestra in the “Finale” is the intense arrival point of the seemingly disparate points along the way making for an actually exhilarating and dramatic conclusion.  Moser’s sound here is a rather warm one with crisp articulation that cuts through the later textures well.  His is a quite moving performance noted for a bit more time taken for some of the passages here and the weeping responses that appear in the final pages of the work which aims for perhaps some slight hopefulness.

    Inspired by Baudelaire’s poetry, Tout un monde lontain is a great example of Henri Dutilleux’s (1916-2013) style that might best be heard as a blend of Impressionism and Messiaen.  Each of the movements has a brief quote from Les fleurs de mal.  Most fascinating in this work is the way sound seems to coalesce and expand dynamically.  The cello line creates the connective tissue of lyricism against these often subdued clusters right from the first movement, “Enigme”. From a high held solo cello note, we move into the almost romantic “Regarde”.  Moser’s approach in both these opening movement emphasizes some of the gradual unfolding and sensuousness of the music making his interpretation a bit longer than many.  References to the opening are echoed as well.  The more mystical “Houles” is followed by the erotic landscapes of “Miroirs.”  This sort of musical dream continues into the final “Hymne”.  It is really the exploration of sound, timbre, and harmony that really helps hold things together.  There is a bit more competition here in the Dutilleux with a 2015 Seattle Symphony release being highly recommended (it was reviewed here as well).  But that said, there is something about the personal intensity of this performance which remains quite attractive.  Moser’s more relaxed approach in the opening movements works quite well and lets those lines sing more.

    The Berlin orchestra proves to be a perfect accompanist here in this music with sensitive playing, especially in the Dutilleux, that really creates the perfect sensual atmospheres.  Crisp articulation in the Lutoslawski is also admirable.  In fact, what stands out about the release is that there is some attention to interpretation that makes these pieces individual and not just two “similar” sounding 20th Century works.  That is an important accomplishment as we get a good sense of the compositional style of both of these composers.