Advantages: Highly burnished, engaging, musically intelligent and emotionally mature playing; beautiful tone is never saccharine. Disadvantages: Nil.
's instrument is front and centre throughout. It's a rather lean composition, with only strings and winds keeping the cello company on occasion, and brass accents bursting forth in a few, select spots.
THE MINIATURES
Even the smaller pieces receive more than mere perfunctory playing from Ms Clein. Originally written for other instruments by Elgar, these miniatures were arranged for the cello by Julian Milone. Ms Clein's engaging style brings a nice contrast between the skipping staccato notes and smooth, flowing legato ones on 'La Capriceuse'. The lovely 'In Moonlight' and 'Romance, Opus 68' evoke an air of joy tinged with melancholia. On the other hand, a whimsical frothiness is offered in 'Salut d'Amour' and 'Chanson de Matin'. Things are brought to a poignant close with the deep sighs of 'Sospiri'.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Ms Clein, ably ...
Advantages: It is simply one of the finest pieces of music ever written Disadvantages: How dare you ask of any disadvantges!?!
Harrison as soloist, but it was never really taken on, and was often considered as being "ugly" and a "failure." It took nearly 50 years for the Concerto to re-emerge to the public consciousness when a young cellist by the name of Jaqueline duPré took up the work and made it a world wide sensation. After DuPré's classic performances of the work in 1965 and 1970, the Concerto finally ascended to its rightful place of the most magnificent Concerto for Cello and Orchestra ever composed, right beside Dvorak's respective masterpiece.
MOVEMENT BY MOVEMENT ANALYSIS
(Listened version: 1965 recording by Jacqueline DuPré with John Barbirolli and the London Symphony Orchestra)
I Movement: Adagio - Moderato
Four jagged, outraged notes from the cello alone open the concerto as if to ask "What is this?" The cello continues in similar manner ...
Advantages: The Best Recording Ever Disadvantages: None
Elgar’s CelloConcerto in E Minor, Op. 85
Jacqueline du Pre and the LSO, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
Madam, you have an instrument between your legs capable of giving pleasure to thousands, and all you can do is sit there and scratch it!
So said the eminently witty conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, in reference to a lady ‘cellist. He certainly wasn’t, however, referring to the unmatchable Jacqueline du Pre, who, in my humble opinion, was the most gifted cellist ever and whose short, tragic life is somehow augured by this melancholic recording. It’s an EMI classic, which means that it’s an old, old recording, but so good that it shouldn’t be lost at the bottom of a pile of old vinyls at a jumble sale, but digitally re-mastered and made available for future generations on CD. The original ...
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