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5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Definitive Dvorak, Excellent Elgar Jan 20, 2004
By Michael B. Richman
It took me a while to track down this disc, and I am sure glad I finally found and bought it. Pierre Fournier is one of my favorite cellists, and his recordings of Strauss' "Don Quixote" (with Szell, but now out of print), and Lalo's Cello Concerto (with Martinon on DG Originals -- see my review) are among, if not the best, ever recorded. Owning his earlier mono performance of the Dvorak with Kubelik on Testament, I knew Fournier's stereo account would surely be spectacular. I had seen the budget-line DG "Musikfest" CD, which combines the very same Dvorak performance featured here with Bruch's "Kol Nidrei for Cello and Orchestra" and Bloch's "Schelomo," but I already owned the latter two recordings (as part of the CD containing the aforementioned Lalo). So for years I resisted buying one of my favorite concertos performed by one of my favorite cellists accompanied by my single favorite conductor (George Szell), because I didn't want to duplicate my collection. Well, in this case the waiting paid off because a disc that for years seemed to be out of print, is now available through Amazon. This 1987 DG "Galleria" Edition CD couples the 1962 Dvorak recording with a 1967 performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto with conductor Alfred Wallenstein, also with the Berlin Philharmonic. Both accounts are glorious, with the Dvorak reaching the same lofty heights as the critically-acclaimed Rostropovich/Karajan recording with the same orchestra six years later. The Elgar performance is stunning as well, though it falls short of Jacqueline du Pre's legendary reading with Barbirolli. In all, some CDs are worth the wait, but just because I waited so long doesn't mean you have to -- order away!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
1 July 1916: the `End of Innocence'... Nov 03, 2010
By Sébastien Melmoth
*
1 July 1916: the `End of Innocence'...
Nineteen-thousand British soldiers died on the single day of 1 July 1916 (Battle of the Somme).
By mid-November 1916, the British death toll would rise above 95,000--with another 300,000 wounded.
The British press, which heretofore had coöperated with the British government in `opinion management', began publishing appalling casualty lists in full.
The result (as John Keegan has noted) `marked the end of an age of vital optimism in British life that has never been recovered': it was the end of the `long' XIXth Century.
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While the 19th Century certainly had its ups and downs, there is no historical doubt that the growth in real wages continuously rose throughout its last quarter unto the Great War: this means that for the majority of Englishmen things really were `getting better all the time'.
This beneficent material reality was attenuated by a certain psychic optimism reflected in the nickname of the period--la Belle Époque (the Beautiful Era).
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The Belgian coast is England's frontier, making Belgian neutrality a critical consideration to British security. In 1914, when the British cheerfully embarked to fight the `Jerries' in bloody Belgium, they were off to fight a 19th-Century war. Unfortunately, they quickly met 20th-Century military weaponry to devastating effect. By the War's end, with over 1.5 million casualties, there was scarcely a family in Britain without loss.
And by 1919, Edward Elgar--the Belle Époque British composer par excellence, who had ridden the very crest of the prosperous wave of the `long' 19th Century, had succumbed to the ugliness of the harsh reality of the War's human tragedy and the loss of essential British optimism: the artist's response is his e-minor Cello Concerto with its ethos of introspective lament and painful elegeiakos.
Jacqueline du Pré championed the work and there are several notable recordings by other prominent soloists; but Fournier's 1967 digitally remastered performance with the BPO really seems to capture the work's grandiloquent and extravagant mournfulness (nicely paired here with Dvorák's ripe Romantic b-minor Concerto).
*
alternative readings for consideration:
Maisky Elgar: Cello Concerto . Cello Concerto
Ma Great Cello Concertos
Müller-Schott Elgar: Cello Concerto
Wispelwey Elgar: Cello Concerto
Isserlis Elgar: Violin Concerto/Cello Concerto
Mørk Truls Mørk ~ Elgar - Cello Concerto
*
see too:
The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914
Dreadnought
The Guns of August
*
a very attractive coupling Mar 08, 2011
By R. Germinario
There are quite a few amazing performances out there regarding the Dvorak concerto. However, my first experience with Fournier`s really captivated me. It ranks right up there with DuPre/Chicago on EMI (mid 1970`s) and Casals/Czech on EMI (late 1930`s).
The first movement is brilliant, with a beautifully mournful trumpet solo about two minutes in. Very nice sound in this Galleria mid-priced cd, with an attractive cover as well. This performance easily ranks in the top five concerning the Dvorak piece.
Although not as impressive as the Dvorak, Fournier does a commendable job with the Elgar. It is not my first choice - yes, yes, I know all about the famous DuPre/Barbirolli tandem- but this cd does offer a generous coupling without giving up any quality.
Dvorak: 5 stars
Elgar:4 stars
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