"Composed 40 years apart, these two masterpieces from either side of the turn of the last century offer, in their intrinsic contradictions, a fascinating mirror effect. Thus the profound nostalgia of Sir Edward Elgar’s Concerto stands revealed in its lighter themes, which gain the upper hand in the second movement and a fair bit of the finale.

Similarly, the 'Rococo Variations', far from being just an entertaining stylistic exercise, conveys a deep underlying melancholy in the slow variations, while the divine harmonies of Tchaikovsky, who is the supreme master in that respect, reveal a genuine and discreet tenderness.

Maestro Belohlávek is a great source of inspiration to me. I find in him a discretion, an accessibility and a profundity that remind me of Pierre Boulez in an entirely different repertory. What’s more, he was an excellent cellist in his early days and so he has our repertory at his fingertips, literally and figuratively. He was able to give me some valuable advice during the recording sessions!"
Jean-Guihen Queyras

Sound/Video

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Elgar - Cello Concerto - I.Adagio, Moderato
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Elgar - Cello Concerto - II.Lento, Allegro molto
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Elgar - Cello Concerto - III.Adagio
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Elgar - Cello Concerto - IV.Allegro, Moderato...
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Dvorak - Rondo, op.94
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Dvorak - Klid (Silent Woods), op.68/5
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Tchaikovsky - Rococo Variations - Introduction
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Tchaikovsky - Rococo Variations - Variation III
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Tchaikovsky - Rococo Variations - Variation VII

Europadisc Review

Following their early partnership for Harmonia Mundi in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Jiří Bělohlávek join forces again in staples of the cello repertoire: Elgar’s Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s ‘Rococo’ Variations. This time the orchestra is the BBC Symphony Orchestra, which has a long and distinguished pedigree of playing Elgar’s music, not only under the composer himself, and founder conductor Adrian Boult, but also with such high-profile foreign guests as Arturo Toscanini and Leonard Bernstein.

That long tradition bears abundant fruits here. Queyras himself is a player with an enviable breadth of repertoire, stretching from the baroque to the heights of modernism (as he discusses in the ‘video biography’ linked on this page). In his hands, the Elgar Concerto is revealed as a work that could only have emerged in the wake of the horrors and societal upheavals of the Great War. Queyras talks of the Concerto’s nostalgic flavour, but what also emerges, even in the lighter passages, is a profoundly elegiac quality that is tremendously affecting. The recording (made at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios) creates an ideal sound-image, the balance between orchestra and soloist perfectly judged. Queyras coaxes a phenomenally supple variety of expression from his 1696 Gioffredo Cappa instrument, from the full-bodied tone of the work’s opening, through the mercurial delicacy of the second movement, to the melting fragility of the great Adagio, and he is matched all the way by the BBCSO’s players. A thrillingly vivid and deeply-felt account of the finale caps this memorable performance. This may well be the finest and most spontaneous-sounding recording of this work for many, many years, and though its expressive impact is profound it never falls into the trap of overdoing the emotions at the expense of the wider structural balance.

Before the main coupling, Dvořák’s Rondo op.94 and ‘Silent Woods’ in the composer’s own orchestrations make a far bigger impression than their brief durations would suggest. With Bělohlávek at the helm, the music’s Czech flavour is winningly captured; as in the Elgar, the textures are exquisitely transparent and the solo virtuosity is constantly at the service of the music. One wonders anew at the effectiveness of Dvořák’s imaginative scorings.

Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme have rarely sounded so freshly minted on disc as they do here: beautifully poised, and with the solo demands of Wilhelm Fitzenhagen’s version effortlessly negotiated by Queyras. The important woodwind parts are delightfully pert and characterful, string accompaniments are delicate, the slow music of the third and sixth variations is particularly sensitively handled, and the final variation bustles with life. At a time when Tchaikovsky’s own version of the work is finding more champions, Queyras here (and in the booklet interview) makes a most persuasive case for Fitzenhagen’s revision.

This disc not only serves to reinforce Jean-Guihen Queyras’s status among the foremost cellists of his generation, but is also another reminder of what a world-class band the BBC Symphony Orchestra really is. Thoroughly recommended!