Pierre Fournier Dvoˇrák Cello Concerto Swiss Festival Orchestra | István Kertész Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
HISTORIC PERFORMANCES Pierre Fournier Dvoˇrák Cello Concerto Swiss Festival Orchestra | István Kertész Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 Orchestre Philharmonique de la RTF | Jean Martinon Casals El cant dels ocells Festival Strings Lucerne | Matthias Bamert Antonín Dvoˇrák (1841–1904) Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 I. Allegro 14:38 II. Adagio, ma non troppo 10:58 III. Finale. Allegro moderato 11:30 PIERRE FOURNIER cello SWISS FESTIVAL ORCheSTRA | ISTVÁN KERTÉSZ Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33 I. Allegro non troppo 5:27 II. Allegretto con moto 4:30 III. Tempo primo 8:32 PIERRE FOURNIER cello ORCheSTRE PHILhaRMONIQUE de LA RTF | Jean MARTINON Dedication announcement: Pierre Fournier Pablo Casals (1876–1973) El cant dels ocells 4:13 PIERRE FOURNIER cello FESTIVAL STRINGS LUCERne | MATTHIAS BameRT The singing cello – repertoire of which he made several stu- Pierre Fournier in Lucerne dio recordings: in the summer of 1962 he interpreted Camille Saint-Saëns’ First Cello Piano, violin and cello: these three instru- Concerto in A minor, Op. 33, alongside the ments ranked most highly in solo perform- Orchestre Philharmonique de la RTF and ances during the first decades of LUCERNE Jean Martinon, with whom he had recorded FESTIVAL – and it is hardly surprising that the work two years previously (together with this is still the case today. Among the cel- a different orchestra, however – the Orches- lists, the frontrunner was, and still is, tre Lamoureux). Fournier’s encounter with Enrico Mainardi who travelled to Lucerne István Kertész in 1967, resulting in a mem- each year between 1946 and 1967, appear- orable performance of Antonín Dvorˇák’s ing twenty-two times in total. Close on Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, proved his heels was Pierre Fournier who gave to be a pinnacle in the festival’s history. as many as eighteen performances from Born in Paris in 1906, Pierre Fournier was 1950. When Fournier appeared for the dubbed the “aristocrat of cello playing”, last time in September 1976 as part of admired in equal measure for the lyrical a memorial concert at the centenary of nobility of his tone, his immaculately fluid Pablo Casals’ birth, he included the Haydn bowing technique and the nimble agility of D major Cello Concerto in the programme his fingers. He and his fellow French cellist and played Casals’ Catalan Cant dels ocells Paul Tortelier humorously “envied” each as an encore. In his brief introduction, he other’s merits: the left hand of one and emphasised that his performance was also the right arm of the other. Fournier felt dedicated to the memory of Mainardi who at home with all styles and periods. His had died in Munich a few months previously. recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s six This late live recording is contrasted solo suites was and is a benchmark in the here with two works from Fournier’s core art of playing the cello, but contemporaries including Albert Roussel, Bohuslav Martinu° Swimming in the Mediterranean, off the and Francis Poulenc also dedicated works coast of Tel Aviv, he, an Icarus lost in a for- to him. Soon his concert schedule became eign element, had veered too far from shore. so busy that he had to give up teaching A pioneer in advocating Antonín Dvorˇák, at the Paris École Normale de Musique in whose works, although popular, were then order to devote himself to his solo career. only recognised as first-rate in Bohemia, In 1956, he took up residence in Switzer- Kertész was the first conductor to record all land but remained a French citizen. nine symphonies. These recordings, along- István Kertész, born in Budapest in 1929, side his interpretation of the Requiem, Op. 89, embarked on his conducting career in the are regarded as discographic classics to late 1940s, seemingly setting completely the present day. However, Kertész did not new standards, having narrowly escaped the manage to record D v o rˇ á k ’s Cello Concerto Holocaust. Equipped with boundless know- before his death: it is therefore particularly ledge of repertoire, analytical musicianship, fortunate that the Swiss Radio recorded an infectious pleasure in swift tempi and an the opening concert of the Internationale unstoppable drive to conquer, he seized the Musikalische Festwochen Luzern, today’s top positions at orchestras and music institu- LUCERNE FESTIVAL, in 1967 – a performance tions worldwide with an apparent ease and which, as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote two in record time – and all of them, from the days later, occurred under “a lucky star with “Big Five” in the USA through to Tel Aviv and regard to all artistic aspects”. Tokyo, knew to treasure him. The admiration Although Dvorˇák claimed that the cello for Kertész even extended to his physiog- was “a piece of wood that screeches at the nomy – there were those who believed that top and creaks at the bottom”, he then, as his profile bore striking resemblance to that though to prove himself wrong, proceeded of Mozart… Far too early, at the age of forty- to compose his Cello Concerto in B minor. three, Kertész died whilst on tour in Israel. It was written not in his native Bohemia but in New York in 1894-95, during Dvorˇák’s sounds, always keep to mobile tempi and tenure as director and composition teacher are not tempted to fall for folklore frenzy at the National Conservatory of Music of or sentimental melancholy. An additional America, founded and supported by Jean- advantage of a live recording is that the nette Thurber, a music patron (temporarily) unpredictable emotional value of the worth millions. Whilst in America, Dvorˇák concert situation is preserved, with musi- was afflicted by homesickness which he cians taking risks without any sense of allayed by visiting Bohemian inhabitants asceptic prudery. This may, at times, result of the town of Spillville, Iowa. He was, in Fournier, who takes many liberties in however, also inspired by the music of the terms of tempo and accentuation, rushing Native Americans, the African American away from the orchestra. But it is precisely Spirituals and the songs of the “American this urgency which gives the interpreta- Schubert”, Stephen Foster. Dvorˇák’s Cello tion its intensity; and even with a precision Concerto bursts with melodic ideas; the fanatic and rigorous rhythmic master such soloist tirelessly engages in eloquent dia- as George Szell on the podium – as the logues with other solo instruments such famous 1962 studio recording of Dvorˇák’s as the flute, horn, the clarinets or the first Cello Concerto with the Berlin Philhar- violin (played here by concertmaster Anton monic reveals – several minor coordination Fietz). This work is a model case of music problems remain, which are due to Fournier’s which can afford to be lavish and bountiful dedicated style of playing. as it – despite its tendency towards musing, The daily press, meanwhile, emphasised and its duration of around forty minutes – other aspects of the performance: “The does not waste time. soloist, Pierre Fournier, has always been This becomes unusually clear in the an introverted artist”, the Tages-Anzeiger interpretation of Fournier and Kertész: commented on 18 August. “The virtuoso they prefer the high definition of separate passages were played perfectly, but they yielded to his musical statement which example of this – thanks to the ennobling could hardly have been more refined and power of his inner energy and the quality transcended.” On the same day, Andres of his sense of sound.” Briner summarised in the Neue Zürcher Zei- István Kertész, who conducted Brahms’ tung: “The introverted and velvety warmth Second Symphony in the second half, of Pierre Fournier’s tone initially seems received particular acclaim: Fritz Schaub almost incompatible with Dvorˇák’s con- of the Luzerner Tagblatt described him certo. However, the deeper one immerses as “a man of contrasts and the al fresco oneself into this interpretation, the style […], who strives for a full orchestral plainer it becomes that Fournier’s subtlety sound and who loves juxtaposing tender bestows a noblesse upon the piece where piano passages with mighty tutti blows; it almost gives this up itself, and how his accents, the rhythmic and dynamic this personal, unmistakeable gentility of shifts, however, always remain attuned to the cellist manages to embrace the deep the organic development of the individual sentiments of the complex and colourful movements”. And the Neue Zürcher Zeitung concerto. Where one might fear a (tone- was amazed to witness that “the musi- induced) constriction, a pleasant expres- cians of the Festival Orchestra achieved in sive widening ensues; moments such as this first concert what one would wish for the ‘Molto sostenuto’ in the first move- from a year-round Swiss élite orchestra. ment development and the tenderly inti- That also, in no small part, must have been mate but always restless figures in the last down to István Kertész.” movement will not easily be forgotten. The First Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 33, Fournier naturally never is a triumphator by the thirty-seven-year-old Camille Saint- of external sound volume, but he always Saëns unites most desirable virtues that triumphs – the B major apotheosis of the make both the virtuoso and the audience finale was perhaps the most impressive happy: the soloist is given the opportunity to pull out all the stops of his prowess, to lithe. Fournier and Jean Martinon, who demonstrate rapid fingering, to give space focussed on dynamics, precision and to heartfelt melodic meditations, to cover decisiveness, were thus the ideal perform- many contrast changes and styles without ers for this music. The Luzerner Tagblatt becoming long-winded, and to explore attested Fournier the “highest admira- brilliant heights and sonorous depths.