Ernest Bloch - Music for Cello & Piano (Raphael Wallfisch; John York)

Information

Composer: Ernest Bloch

• Sonate pour piano et violoncello
• Suite for cello and piano (arr. Gabor Rejto & Adolph Baller)
• Nigun (Improvisation from Baal Shem, arr. Joseph Schuster)
• From Jewish Life
• Méditation hébraïque

Raphael Wallfisch, cello

John York, piano

Date: 2017

Label: Nimbus

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Review

Can it really be that the Ernest Bloch who wrote the Cello Sonata (1897) is the same composer who penned the Viola Suite 22 years later that Gábor Rejtő and Adolph Baller transcribed for cello and piano and that Raphael Wallfisch and John York feature on the current collection? The Sonata at times sounds like a cross between Saint-Saëns and Dvořák, its appealing melodic content lacking the individual slant that marked so many of Bloch’s later works as distinctive. My fondest past memory of the Suite, a wonderful work, is the RCA Victor/HMV shellac set that viola player William Primrose and Fritz Kitzinger made of the original in 1938, a performance of a searing intensity that Wallfisch and York don’t quite level up to, though there’s plenty to enjoy: the energetic start of the second movement, for example, and the deeply mysterious Lento third movement.

‘Nigun’ from Baal Shem (1923) is by far the best-known piece included here, its arranger Joseph Schuster a wonderful cellist in his own right. Wallfisch captures the work’s signature ‘speaking’ eloquence with some effective chordal work and well calculated expressive leaps. From Jewish Life (1925) again takes me back, specifically the opening ‘Prayer’ which years ago was recorded by Gregor Piatigorsky to wonderful effect, the ‘Jewish Song’ possibly the most ethnically infused of all the Jewish works included on the disc, its cantorial cadences unmistakably stemming from synagogue chant. The closing Méditation hébraïque (1924, written for Casals) is similarly intense.

Wallfisch and York do well by this music, Wallfisch never pushing for maximum intensity but favouring a lightly inflected manner that suggests an appropriate sense of improvisation. Altogether a most successful programme.

— Rob Cowan

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Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer known for blending post-Romantic and neoclassical styles with Jewish musical themes. He studied in Switzerland and Belgium, taught at the Geneva Conservatory, and moved to the U.S. in 1916. Bloch became the first director of the Cleveland Institute of Music and later led the San Francisco Conservatory. He taught at UC Berkeley until retiring in 1952. Bloch's compositions, influenced by Debussy, Mahler, and Ravel, include Schelomo, Baal Shem, Avodath Hakodesh, Concerto Grosso No. 1, and Israel Symphony, among 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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Pianist John York, born in Eastbourne in 1949, was deeply influenced by the town's rich musical life, studying under Winifred Mills and thriving in Reginald Bertin’s music program. He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1966–1971), where he later taught for 33 years, also serving as head of music at St Paul's Girls' School. Further studies in Paris and Vienna preceded a nearly 50-year performing career launched at Wigmore Hall in 1974. Renowned for solo, chamber and duo work—particularly with his wife Fiona York and cellist Raphael Wallfisch—he enjoys an international reputation.

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