SCHUMANN
5 Pieces in Folk
Style, op. 102. Adagio and Allegro,
op. 70. Fantasiestück, op. 73. Cello
Concerto
Sol Gabetta
(vc); Giovanni Antonini, cond; Bertrand Chamayou (fp); Kammerorchester Basel SONY 88985352272 (58:16)
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New classical music releases reviewed in detail by Gavin Dixon
Thursday, 18 April 2019
Sol Gabetta Schumann
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All is not what it seems with this new Schumann album
from Sol Gabetta. From the cover, which shows Gabetta pretending to play on a
set of disembodied cello ribs, the label, and Gabetta’s own stellar reputation,
it would be fair to expect a vehicle for her star prowess. But this is a
different kind of project, as is demonstrated by the liner, not an airy and
self-serving interview with Gabetta, but a detailed discussion of Schumann’s
cello music by Ruth Seiberts: The cellist doesn’t even get a bio.
Even more surprisingly, these are period-instrument
performances, or at least period-instrument accompaniments: Pianist Bertrand
Chamayou plays a J. B. Streicher fortepiano, made in Vienna in 1847, and the
Kammerorchester Basel—who, it seems, swing both ways—on this occasion play on
gut strings and with period brass. But someone forgot to tell Gabetta herself,
whose penetrating tone in the chamber works suggests metal strings and who
(thankfully) eschews the sweeping portamento that we increasingly associate
with 19th-century performance practice.
These are assertive performances from Gabetta, and
they take some getting used to. The Five
Pieces in Folk Style are a good place to start, because Gabetta is able to
bring rhythmic focus, with her narrow tone and brusque articulation. The other
cello and piano works, the Adagio and
Allegro and Fantasiestück, require
more lyrical playing, and Gabetta shows she can mellow her tone, but this is
still a very up-front cello sound. Chamayou is a lively and alert accompanist,
and the engineers find a good balance between the two instruments. The
fortepiano sounds boxy in the mid-register but has an appealing depth in the
lower range—so the period instrument is a mixed blessing here.
The period instruments in the Basel orchestra make
less of an impression in the concerto, although their playing, too, is suitably
light and agile. Gabetta is on excellent form here, expanding her tonal palette
to match the orchestra, while still retaining that focus of tone and line. The
concerto is clearly the main selling point for this disc, though its period
credentials are of only marginal interest—and when you add in the boxy
fortepiano, the result is an elegant but curious album, with Gabetta’s
distinctive playing only partially alleviating its underlying concept problem.
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