Reviews for Elgar and Lutowslawski cello concertos (Netherland Radio PO/Jac V Steen)
Article in Gramophone Awards Issue 2001 by Andrew Achenbach
In his article Andrew Achenbach compares and contrasts recordings old and new of the Elgar cello concerto. This is what he says about Pieter's version (CCS12998):
Mork versus Wispelwey
Anyway, back to those recordings which are available, and a show-down between the two most recent full-price contenders. Both feature non-British cellists at the height of their powers and are classy productions through and through. On Virgin Classics, the gifted Norwegian Truls Mork is joined by Sir Simon Rattle and the CBSO for a performance which, in its stunning finesse and unruffled co-ordination, comprehensively outflanks Mork's own earlier, plainer-spun account on the French Lyrinz label (from June 1990 with the Monte-Carlo PO under Michel Tabachnik). That said, I'm not sure I don't actually prefer the more flowing treatment of the Adagio on that otherwise engaging, more extrovert predecessor, while Rattle's immaculately trim backing evinces a 'knowing' sophistication that precludes the last ounce of spontaneity.
If you think I'm being impossibly churlish, turn to the Dutch team of Pieter Wispelwey and the Netherlands Radio PO under Jac van Steen on Channel Classics and you'll find the same sense of blistering teamwork allied to an almost chamber-like concentration and uninamity of purpose - more than any other recent version, this is a real meeting of minds. Wispelwey is one of the most versatile and intelligent cellists around at present, and the unforced naturalness of his approach really does touch to the marrow ( the Adagio is exemplary, entirely free of surface gloss or affectation, and all the more moving for it). Wispelwey's countryman, Jac van Steen, deserves equal praise; indeed, the contribution of the Netherlands Radio PO under his thoughtful, ideally supple guidance is past praise in its eager application (their woodwind is particularly characterful). Not everyone will go a bundle on the unexpected coupling (Lutowslawski's Cello concerto, in another riveting performance), but Wispelwey's Elgar demands to be heard.
Truth to tell, none of the remaining contenders surpass the Wispelwey..........
BBC Music Magazine June 1999 by Michael Jameson
Brave indeed is the cellist who chances an Elgar Concerto recording amid the current Du Pre hysteria; braver still one who couples it with Lutoslawski demonic and gripping 1970 work. In his booklet article, Pieter Wispelwey reflects on the pitfalls facing post-Du Pre Elgarians, but given this exceptionally warm, cultivated and naturally empathetic performance, his anxieties seem largely unfounded.
Wispelwey takes more care over Elgar's copious indications of phrasing and inflection than Du Pre herself; listen to his straightforward accompanied recitative (Lento) before the quicksilver Allegro molto begins, or to his ethereal vox humana nuancing throughout the Adagio. And despite Du Pre's undoubted eloquence, that her posthumous fame hangs largely on her Elgar performance alone seems slightly suspect (particularly if, like me, you find her emotionally saturated, often wayward accounts of other works insufferable). Wispelwey is simply the more accomplished and dedicated musician, and orchestral support here, from the Dutch Radio Philharmonic under Jac Van Steen, leaves Barbirolli's 1965 LSO sounding threadbare (intonation between soloist and orchestral cellos in unison passages of both first and last movements was sometimes dire), because this Dutch band plays with greater finesse and flair throughout....
Fanfare September/October 1999 by Bernard Jacobson
......Admirers of Pieter Wispelwey's achievements in the Classical and Baroque fields are unlikely to be surprised, though they will be delighted, by the splendor of his playing here. Eloquence of tone and solidity of technique could perhaps be taken for granted. What is more remarkable is the comprehensiveness of his indentification with the very different scores of Elgar and Lutoslawski. Not a nuance goes unobserved nor a dynamic contrast unmarked, not a texture or figuration is left unclear, not a melodic line fails of its natural shaping and accentuation. Tempos are set with unerring judgement, and consistently maintained. Take those interminably repeated G's, marked "indifferente," in the opening section of the Lutoslawski: Their purpose is, by sheer mechanical insistence, to establish the stubborness with which the soloist-a fully fledged dramatic character modeled by the composer after his dedicatee, Mstislav Rostropovich-will wage his epic battle against the inimical orchestral horde......Wispelwey pursues his course with firm implacability; yet he responds instinctively and mercurially to the irregularity of pulse elsewhere in these early passages.....I have never heard the long and plangent cello cantilena, "molto espressivo, dolente," that later creates one of the Concerto's most important climaxes projected with so consummate a blend as Wispelwey fashions of sensitivity, mystery and emotional warmth.
This is an unequivocally great reading, in the service of a work that depends more than most on the conviction of its performers. Amazingly, Wispelwey seems to surpass not just Roman Jablolski (whose 1976 recording with the composer used to be availabale on a Polskie Nagrania CD) but even Rostropovich himself (who recorded it, also with the composer, a year earlier) in delineating the character quirks of the solo part. At any rate, he makes the whole strange concerto work as a music drama more successfully than anyone I have heard play it before.
The co-producers of the disc, Wispelwey and Jacob Bogaart, have captured both the sound of the solo cello and the orten tumultuous orchestral textures with exemplary vividness, and balanced but he is a scarcely less gifted young conductor (asice from his gifts and despite his youth, one of the most mature and responsible collaborators I had the pleasure of working with when I was in artistic charge of a Dutch orchestra a few years ago), and the Radio Philharmonic plays superbly for him. It is a pleasure, incidentally , to observe how meticulously conductor and soloist time the many silences indicated in the score in seconds-silences that for the most part Lutoslawski as conductor, with both his soloists, surprisingly skimps.
Van Steen's authority is no less crucial in the Elgar Concerto. There are conductors who, in the scherzo-ish second movement of this work, imagine that the orchestra should match the soloist's rubato in their dialog beginning at figure 27. But in his own recording with Beatrice Harrison Elgar forges straight ahead in the orchestra phrases, and so, properly, does van Steen. This performance too comes across with utter conviction from start to finish, setting the darker aspects of the work in their appropriate relation to its fairly sparse relaxed moments, and enhancing the impact of Elgar's deeply poignant slow movement by managing neither to drag nor to rush it. Hats off to all concerned- and Wispelwey's essay in the booklet, commenting at once perceptively and generously on his great predecessors in the interpretation of the concerto, is icing on the cake....