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Elgar & Dvorak: Cello Concertos

The Europadisc Review

Elgar & Dvorak: Cello Concertos

Andrew Manze, Alban Gerhardt (cello), WDR Sinfonieorchester (orchestra)

£12.83

In his introductory note to this new Hyperion recording of concertos by Dvořák and Elgar, cellist Alban Gerhardt writes of ‘rediscovering the immediacy, clarity and emotional directness of the music as it stands on the page.’ In particular, he firmly rejects the common equation of slower speeds with added expressive depth, and with it an over-reliance on accrued performing traditions. Yet the listener need not fear any radical revisionism of the sort that (for example) made Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concer... read more

In his introductory note to this new Hyperion recording of concertos by Dvořák and Elgar, cellist Alban Gerhardt writes of ‘rediscovering the immediacy, clarity and emotional directness of the mu... read more

Elgar & Dvorak: Cello Concertos

Elgar & Dvorak: Cello Concertos

Andrew Manze, Alban Gerhardt (cello), WDR Sinfonieorchester (orchestra)

In his introductory note to this new Hyperion recording of concertos by Dvořák and Elgar, cellist Alban Gerhardt writes of ‘rediscovering the immediacy, clarity and emotional directness of the music as it stands on the page.’ In particular, he firmly rejects the common equation of slower speeds with added expressive depth, and with it an over-reliance on accrued performing traditions. Yet the listener need not fear any radical revisionism of the sort that (for example) made Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto so controversial. Instead, Gerhardt, closely partnered by the WDR Sinfonieorchester of Cologne under the baton of Andrew Manze, brings sound musical judgement and a naturally flowing style to bear on these two perennial favourites of the cello repertoire.

The disc opens with the Elgar concerto, a work which can too often sound as if it’s creaking under the weight of tradition. No such danger here: Gerhardt and Manze shave some five minutes off the total timing compared with Jacqueline du Pré’s classic 1965 account with Barbirolli. Yet there is no sense in which the added momentum robs the music of its power or of that typically Elgarian elusiveness which characterises so much of the score. The orchestral tuttis are imposing but never lugubrious, and the same goes for the cello’s more rhetorical solos, which combine passion with eloquence.

The faltering, scherzo-like second movement has all the deftness one could wish for, Gerhardt’s tone featherlight without ever feeling skittish, and the WDR players are constantly alert under Manze’s sensitive direction. The Adagio flows but (crucially) also sings, and the carefully-placed rests are almost as eloquent as the notes themselves. When the solo line goes into the instrument’s upper register, there’s a penetrating clarity to Gerhardt’s playing which is totally convincing; the account of the movement as a whole is as touching as I’ve heard, and never in any danger of being ‘loved to death’.

Meanwhile, the give-and-take introduction to the concluding Allegro is wonderfully pliant, and Manze reveals both a string player’s sensitivity to nuance and the natural feel for quintessentially English repertoire that made his Vaughan Williams recordings on Onyx such a success with listeners. Again, Gerhardt and his colleagues bring a bold freshness to familiar music, and the ebb and flow of the music has rarely sounded so convincing. Coupled with a nicely balanced recording, it makes this new account of Elgar’s most popular work one of the most desirable now on disc.

No less impressive is the performance of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, which similarly exudes a freshness that it has arguably lost ever since the famous DG recording by Rostropovich and Karajan. Inflated speeds and textures may have become the norm since then, but Gerhardt’s performance harkens back to a slightly earlier tradition combining beauty with purpose, which arguably reached its apex with classic recordings by János Starker and Pierre Fournier.

There are fewer surprises here, and the WDR Sinfonieorchester may lack the character of the Czech Philharmonic in days of yore, yet its woodwind and horn soloists are never less than engaging, and the lengthy opening tutti sets up a performance to savour. As in the Elgar, Gerhardt is formidable in the passages of multiple-stopping, but while giving them plenty of gestural power he never lets them impede the music’s natural flow.

The tempo of the central Adagio ma non troppo is judged to a nicety, allowing the sunlight to emerge as much as the anguish (it was composed as Dvořák received news of the worsening heart condition of his beloved sister-in-law Josefina). Even in the more timbrally sombre passages, there’s a momentum to this performance that is highly persuasive. Just beyond the halfway point, the glorious passage for the three horns before the soloist’s ‘quasi cadenza’ deserves special mention, and the ensuing accompanied cadenza is delivered with what might best be described as ‘self-effacing eloquence’, with Gerhardt knowing exactly when to cede greater prominence to his orchestral partners.

The concluding Allegro moderato has great rhythmic poise (essential in Dvořák!) and a commanding gait, and yet again Gerhardt is particularly impressive in the higher-lying passages, to which he brings an unforced naturalness that belies their technical demands. He and Manze work as one in the switches from solo to tutti and back, and as throughout the disc one senses a complete meeting of minds. The movement’s final pages revisit themes (musical and metaphorical) from the slow movement, and it is not just in terms of register that the music here enters a higher sphere. Gerhardt, Manze and the orchestra accordingly raise their game still further, bringing to a moving conclusion one of the most consistently rewarding and touching accounts of this popular coupling now available. Fine, intelligent notes from Francis Pott and high production standards all make this a thoroughly recommendable release.

  • MDG
  • Lyrita
  • Somm

The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

Music of the Iberian Peninsula, Part 3: More observations on the Golden Age

Music of the Iberian Peninsula, Part 3: More observations on the Golden Age  16th June 2026

16th June 2026

Our last visit to the Iberian peninsula, a fortnight ago, was an insanely ambitious, necessarily broad-brush survey of the Spanish and Portuguese Golden Age, covering vocal and instrumental music, the sacred and the secular. This week, we take a more concise and (I hope) focussed look at a few of the sacred vocal masterpieces which exemplify the particular fervour and intensity of this remarkable period of musical history. They reflect the special place the peninsula had as a bulwark against the Reformation that had taken hold in northern Europe, and the especially incandescent nature of its music for the dead as well as is fervent devotion to the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
In the first half of the 17th century, Filipe de Magalhães (c.1571–1652) – a compatriot and contemporary of Duarte Lobo and Manuel Cardoso – was arguably the most renowned of Portuguese composers,... read more

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