just ordered a copy, thank you
Dvorak Cello Concerto
Some recordings imprint us with impressions of a piece that any other interpretation just doesn’t sound right, particularly if we have listened to that recording a bunch prior to hearing others. In this work I had a recording by Maurice Gendron, a French Cellist known more as a teacher than a recording artist, and Haitink with the LPO, that I played the proverbial grooves off 40 years ago.
The piece itself is one of Dvorak’s greatest. He was a superb melodist.. Brahms once said that other Composers could make a career using the chips that flew off his workbench. However a lot of his works can sound formulaic, as he tries to make those gorgeous tunes fill up a structure they can’t support. When he was inspired however, he soared, and this Concerto is one of his peaks. Written after several years in America when he was pining to be home with his family, he also learned that his sister in law, who was his first love and with whom he stayed close after his own marriage, had died. He incorporates some songs that he had written for her in the piece, and the juxtaposition of the symphonic scope of the work with the interludes of aching nostalgia is irresistible.
It was years before I heard another recording and they all sounded somewhat slick in comparison. They just don’t seem to be inside the work as my favorite. Is this for real or was I so shaped by my initial impression.
Lately I’ve been listening to Alissa Weilerstein with Jiri Behlolavak (who died soon after the recording) and the Czech PO. I finally have a recording that has supplanted the long term favorite. I still prefer some of the rubato in Gendron/Haitink, but Weilerstein still dishes the emotion but more as a Polka then a Waltz. And her tone is golden. She floats a pianissimo at the end that is to die for
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Maurice Gendron was one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century. |
I didn’t realize that Gendron had made those other recordings. I had worked in a record store in Ann Arbor in college that claimed to carry every recording in print and could scarcely find any Gendron but I ought to try that newfangled Internet. I am unfamiliar with Gastinel, but every cellist who has a career has recorded the Dvorak, so I can check it out. Rostropovich/Karajan never moved the needle for me but it’s been a few decades since I listened so yes, maybe with streaming I will have a Dvorak binge this weekend |
Search on these streaming services is terrible. I have the recording, and Roon says it’s also available on Qobuz:
I’m someone who rarely has a single favorite of anything. In this concerto, I also like Christan Poltéra, a fine cellist:
Probably the only work for which I have a definite favorite is Bruno Walter's Beethoven Pastoral.
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If you look at how Starker at 11:40 handles what is written as a single bow, it is an unusual practice at what is an emotional highlight of the concerto. It is even more brilliantly done in his famous Mercury recording with Dorati. The only other cellist that breaks up the bar in this way, I think, is Fournier. In any event, it is but one reason why the Starker remains my favorite. Not to mention the great Mercury sound. |
Ii heard Daniel Müller-Schott play the Dvorak in Köln. He did a recording of it which I haven't heard. It's on the Orfeo label so I probably ought to buy a copy. Here is; https://www.amazon.com/Dvorak-Cello-Works-Daniel-Müller-Schott/dp/B00JGSHJSS |
@melm , I'll agree that the performance practice during the time of Fournier, Starker, is different from today. I find that true however with violin, piano, etc... as well. Conservatories are different than they once were. The definite advantage to newer recordings is the sound quality. In my prior post I had said that I saw Daniel Müller-Schott play the Dvorak but now I'm thinking it may have been the Elgar. I actually saw Alisa Weilerstein play the Dvorak. Anyway, both are wonderful players. |
@mahler123 yes, it was wonderful seeing and hearing such a gifted cellist in the Cologne Philharmoniker. I wish I could remember the orchestra. I believe it was one of the smaller but skilled nonetheless, German Orchestras from around the Rheinland. Thing about Cologne and that concert hall is that they have about five or six performances a week. Sometimes orchestras but also chamber and solo music recitals. They also host jazz groups. And unlike Paris, it’s not that difficult to get a ticket. I’d full heartedly recommend a trip to Cologne to anyone who’s never been. |
As I understand it there are 2 major Orchestras in Cologne. One is the Gurzenich Orchestra, and the other has I think undergone a name change in the relatively recent past. Then of course there are he Period Groups, such as Musica Antiqua Koln and Concerto Koln. we had a trip planned to Germany for the Fall of 2020 and I was planning to see Concerts in Cologne, Berlin, Munich and Dresden, but of course that went up in smoke with the Pandemic |
@melm I can't say always, as I haven't compared every recording but in my experience, newer recordings generally sound better than vintage unless the older recordings were successfully remastered from the original tapes. I have many remastered recordings from the golden age of recording, 1918 to early 1960's and very much appreciate what they are but most are in mono and the very early recordings sound rough. On the other hand, I was listening to a recent Deutsche Grammophon Taneyev Chamber Music CD and it sounded just better than average with some poor sounding patches throughout. I ditched it after the piano quintet and played an early Wilhelm Backhaus recording which to me was much easier to enjoy. |
@mahler123 There's also the Cologne WDR Symphony and Chorus and the Cologne Philharmonic but many orchestras from throughout Europe travel to Cologne. I've also been to Berlin but not much seemed to be going on there during Xmas/Hanukah. Paris has a lot going on with six or more concert houses. I was there when the Salle Pleyel scheduled Martha Argerich and Friends and it sold out in less than two hours.I didn't get a ticket. |
I couldn’t remember the name of the WDR before…thank you for jogging the memory bank. I am listening to DuPre/Barenboim now. It’s better than I remembered it to be, but I still think DB gets a bit to cute with rubato in some of the melt in your mouth nostalgic parts. The beauty is there in the music and it doesn’t need italicizing from a 30 ish wunderkind Conductor. However as I stated previously it isn’t as blatant as I had thought, and if this were the only recording of the piece I could easily live it. Like most Classical works in the pantheon it faces stiff competition, and the great is the enemy of the good |
@goofyfoot Now, a cello sounds very different close up than at a distance. In the context of a concerto with a full orchestra and the cello at a distance, it's my personal experience that a cello will sound thinner and somewhat more nasal than when close up. IMO that sound is captured by the 3 mike Mercury technique, the cosest mike being (probably) at least 16 feet from the cello. The sound of the cello in the Dvorak sounds quite different than in Starker's famous Bach set, also on Mercury and more closely miked. Modern recording, Decca or not, uses a forest of microphones to a mixing console. They likely do place a mike or mikes on a soloist and get a different kind of sound that's not available to an audience member. They mix a close-up of the solo instrument (sometimes with "proximity effect") with the sound of the orchestra. The difference may be in whether we get a sound per our audio preference, or one that is closer to an actual performance. No different here than in so many other aspects of audio. |
@melm yeah, well you asked me if newer recordings 'always' sound better than earlier recordings so I just answered the best I could. And, my reference to using master tapes means the original tapes from the original recording. Microphone placement varies today just as it always has. The Jean-Guihen Queyras Dvorak recording from Harmonia Mundi is open and natural sounding so I would guess that the microphone placement is further away from the cello. Also, the same types of microphones are available today just as they were back in the day. Telefunken still makes their ELA M 251E, U47 and C12 vacuum tube microphones. I have no desire to argue, especially where it pertains to personal preference but recording technologies have progressed over the years. Whether a record label is capable or willing to use these technological advancements is questionable. I've been amazed at the remastering job Analogue Productions did with the RCA Living Stereo of 'Scheherazade'. This recording is a simple three track recording from around 1958. The Analogue Productions remaster is nothing short of amazing. I did state that I thought the performance practice of works is different now from what it used to be and for me, that is neither good or bad because there are great contemporary performances and great historical performances. I believe this applies to the Dvorak Cello Concerto as well. |
@melm I heard Weilerstein and the Czech PO perform the piece in Chicago, with Bychkov conducting, as Behlolavak had passed away. Aural memories can fail us, but I think the Decca recording is very faithful to a concert perspective . Starker had a more laser like intonation and at least in his non Bach recordings had less vibrato than Rostropovich, Gendron, Du Pre, Weilerstein, etc. I have his Bach recordings but its been a while since I last heard them so I will except those. The contemporary Cellist that most reminds me of Starker is Capucon. |
I’ve been listening to the Rostropovich/Karajan the last few days and have been using it to do some system comparisons. Regarding the performance, it is absolutely fine. There is plenty of virtuosity on display, not the least being the burnished horns of the BPO. This recording really shines in the slow movement. Somehow it doesn’t sound as convincing to me as my two favorites, but its nothing to sneeze at. My CA streamer does AirPlay and Chromecast. I recently added Apple Music as I have become dissatisfied with Qobuz for a few reasons and have been thinking of dumping it, and used this recording as a comparator this morning. First I AirPlay from my iPad to the CA . Next up was casting from Qobuz on my Android phone, and ended with Qobuz playing directly through the streamer. It improved with each iteration, but the biggest jump was the last, as the Cello became distinctly fuller sounding and the sound stage snapping into place |
