Cello Concertos

 

 

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This is a most extraordinary issue. Here one can sample du Pre at her most inspired, often sacrificing beauty of sound for drama. But the scratchy bow strokes or missed notes on the whole are not of great concern. When performances are as inspired (and indeed inspring) as this, ne just enjoys the music. The Saint-Saens concerto opens the disc, and from the outset we hear the strong rapport between the soloist, conductor and orchestra, in here the Philadelphia Orchestra, who respond with enthusiasm. The concerto is not a major work, but it is a piece, in du Pre's hands, that sounds like a significant work. She recorded it comercially for EMI in 1968, and I love the performance. But here it is even more impressive. Casals described it as "a storm interrupted by passages of great calm and peace." Du Pre seems to take note of this quote, as what we get is a very volatile performance, tempi and dynamics fluctuating like a storm that is unpredictable. She used her 1970 Peresson cello, to great effect. Barenboim conducts with vigour, even more than in the 1968 version. The sound is very clean for a live performance from 1971. The first movement is much more volatile than the 1968 version, which doesn't come as a total surprise as du Pre tended to understate a little in the studio. The second movement is faster than the 1968 version, which is far too slow for an Allegretto. The third mvement is also faster than the 1968, and it has you on the edge of your seat, because the playing is so virtosic and risk-taking. No cellist plays like that nowadays. The cello is very forward, enabling the listener to hear the minutest of detail, although the orchestra is at times less forward than the cello, strangely. Then comes the great Dvorak concerto. And boy, was I struck by it! I have heard three different Dvorak concerto perfomances by du Pre: The live 1970 performance from Wellington, New Zealand, of which I have a private tape, the 1970 Chicago studio performance, which is available generally, then this 1967 performance. Of the three, this is the most impassioned. She uses her famous 'Davidov' cello (in the other two recordings, she used a Goffriller cello), and really pushes the capacity of the instrument (as noted in the CD booklet), and throughout the performance one can hear many scratches and buzzes from the strings caused by extra pressure du Pre exerted upon the instrument. Here is du Pre at her most energetic, her tone beautifully burnished and the volume of her tone is incredible. Here one realises what people meant when they accused her of being too excessively emotional, but I just love it! Yes, she is overly emotional in some passages, but what is music about? I think it is about conveying emotion of the music, and the Dvorak is a pretty emotional and dramtic piece anyway. Her use of rubato is wonderful, with broad phrasings which suits this piece. She creates a sense of nostalgia in the coda of the last movement that is incredibly touching. This is a Dvorak concerto performance that will not be surpassed in terms of its emotional passion. It isn't the most technically accurate, as it is a live performance, but certainly the most joyfully passionate. Celibidache provides wonderful accompaniment from his orchestra, which copes very well to du Pre's fluctuations of tempi and liberal use of rubato. The wind section is particularly good. The conductor's tempi are slow compared with other performances, but because of this, the soloist can afford to be grand in her phrasings. Only occasionally the orchestra fails to come in at the right time, but that is a trivial matter. No one performance was the same. Du Pre couldn't do such a thing as playing a piece the same way, and in this sense she was a great improviser, but without changing the notes (very much like Martha Argerich). To my annoyance, the people at Teldec edited out the applause. People generally don't like applause at the end of a live recording, but here is an exception. When the performances are as inspired as this, applause would have made it that more atmospheric. The remastered sound throughout is wonderfully vivid. Her recordings are all too small and I revel in the issues of new previously-unreleased recordings, as her discography always needs filling-up, and this is a valuable addition to the du Pre discography. It is a must for any du Pre fan. I have said that to many other du Pre discs, but this REALLY is a must!

the collaboration between Jacqueline Dupre and Celibidache is just magical. Their shared abandon to the lirical, nostalgic beauty of the concert, combined with their oustanding command of musical detail, infuse this performance of a unique magic. Only Rostropovich with Talich and Casals with Szell (or anybody else for that matter)have touched this listener so deeply in the same concerto.

In this cd we have two masters at work. Jacqueline du Pre and Sergiu Celibidache provide one of the greatest performances of Dvorak's cello concerto. We find the meeting of two oustanding musical minds and souls. The tempos are deliberate but the musical pulse is never lost. The phrasing is just superb, the signal of true greatness. Du Pre and Celibidache play with such sensitivity, depth and abandon that you, the listener, feel that the music is not coming from outside you but it is drawn out of you in a communal act of re-creation. It is a deeply moving and felt performance.

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