Making albums of transcriptions
and encores wasn't always the slightly mawkish thing that people think
it is nowadays, and many would sniff at them nowadays. But the
greatest of them did it -- Fritz Kreisler revelled in his many
transcriptions of various works by imaginary composers, Ricci
borrowed Chopin's Nocturnes and made them his own, even Heifetz did
it, with his Gershwin transcriptions.
Cellists
have always had a dearth of good encore pieces to play beyond the
obligatory The Swan and Popper short pieces; this disc is no
different, except that it features the man whom everyone agrees
started it all for the cello -- "Pau" Casals. At risk of seeming
ungrateful, I wonder why Casals decided to record all these little
bon-bons instead of something more substantial when he entered the
studio (the notes, written by the always informative Tully Potter
say that Casals was only lured to the recording studio in 1915,
after taking an American wife), such as finishing the cello suite
recorded here only in part.
(above: Casals tunes up)
The aforementioned The Swan
is here, dignified and elegantly played, as is Salut d'amor,
fair enough game for the cello, I suppose, very stylishly played and
reminiscent of Kreisler, but so are minor pieces like Rubinstein's
Melody in F, a popular work in that time, and a charming Romance by
Campagnoli. The Faure transcription is so persuasively played by
Casals that one might forgive oneself for thinking it was written
for the cello.
The most substantial work here is the Kol Nidrei by Bruch, and
Casals is backed here by a studio orchestra. Last heard on an EMI
References recording, it here sounds better than before, and his
performance is most persuasive.
The indelible impression one
goes away with after listening to this disc is Casals' beautiful,
individual tone, and also, how much his playing had sadly
deteriorated by his later years, though the music was always there.
The Bach suite excerpts only highlight this - the insights into the
music here yield nothing to the EMI recording of the full suites
made years later, yet the right hand for one exhibits better
control. If only he had made them earlier. But he lived in a time
when recording techniques were in their nascent stage, and the sound
of these recordings, though scarcely unlistenable, was still not as
good as the Bach suite recordings.
This album, then, is recommended to all interested in the cello,
Casals, or both.
