Bohuslav Martinů - Cello Concertos (Raphael Wallfisch)

Information

Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

• Cello Concerto No. 1, H. 196
• Cello Concerto No. 2, H. 304
• Concertino for cello, wind & brass ensemble, percussion & piano in C minor, H. 143

Raphael Wallfisch, cello

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Jiří Bělohlávek, conductor

Date: 1991

Label: Chandos

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Review

These June 1991 recordings were well respected when first issued at full price on Chandos CHAN 9015 in 1992. Rather like their Oslo/Jansons Tchaikovsky series this disc - with its logical and appealing triple filling - could easily have stayed at premium price. However 2009 - Martinů year - has seen Chandos recognising the event by transferring the disc to mid-price with no compromise on presentation.  

This version by Wallfisch is the finest of Martinů Cello Concerto 1s. I had forgotten how attractive this work is. One of these days we will perhaps hear it in its unrevised version of 1930 but until then the revisions of 1939 and 1955 present the work with the much richer emotional palette of the works of the 1950s. It comes across as tragically eloquent and constantly active and picaresque. The Second Concerto suffers a little from the dense texturing of the first movement though the high strings wing their way free from the matte backdrop. It was written during a prime time for Martinů in New York. First taken up, twenty years after its completion, by Sasa Vectomov, it was recorded in 1965 by Supraphon with Vectomov as soloist. It's a typical work of Martinů's 1940s. It paints in grand emotions and gestures and links with the Fourth and Fifth symphonies the latter more than the former. Throughout there is idiomatic and stirring support from the Czech Phil under Belohlavek. Lastly we come to the stripped down jazzy Stravinskian textures of the 1924 Concertino here laid out in a single track. Echoes of Les Noces, Petrushka and Ragtime are not difficult to hear. There are also moments when the eloquent cello - a elephant in the room in this company - springs free to sing of the Czech countryside.

The notes are by Graham Melville-Mason and are well up to thorough and readable standards. 

I always lamented how few CDs the Chandos Belohlavek Prague connection yielded. Of the clutch that did emerge this is one of the strongest and an ideal introduction to two problematical or elusive works in the Martinů line-up - the Concertino and the First Concerto. The Concertino is, by the way, an object lesson in conveying the essential illusion of space and depth through only two channels. Delightful.

— Rob Barnett

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Bohuslav Martinů (December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He was a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and briefly studied under Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk. Martinů was a prolific composer who wrote almost 400 pieces. Many of his works are regularly performed or recorded, among them his oratorio The Epic of Gilgamesh, his six symphonies, concertos, chamber music, a flute sonata, a clarinet sonatina and many others. Martinů's notable students include Alan Hovhaness, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Jan Novák and many others.

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Raphael Wallfisch (born 1953 in London) is an English cellist whose career took off after winning the Gaspar Cassadó Competition at age 24. He has performed with major orchestras worldwide and worked with leading conductors, building a vast discography with labels like Chandos, CPO and Naxos. Known for championing British and lesser-known repertoire, he has premiered works by many contemporary composers. Wallfisch is also a respected educator, serving as Professor at the Royal College of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire, and frequently sits on international competition juries. He plays a 1733 Montagnana cello.

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