This is a cello recital with a twist
of lime. A look at the head-note would
perhaps indicate sweetmeats and transcriptions,
revisions and adaptations from diverse
sources but you’d need to take a look
at the instrumentation for a fuller
picture. There are indeed some chestnutty
things here but generally in less well-known
guise; two-cello Albeniz for instance
and salon-style guitar accompaniment
for Fauré. Whether this will
appeal depends very much on strengths
of performance overcoming limited recording
time, and on the quality of the transcriptions
themselves.
Vocalise, which
is the title of the disc, is heard in
Leonard Rose’s transcription. Rondin
is a careful, scrupulous, rather noble-minded
player though his vibrato is inclined
to be occasionally one-paced and some
expressive devices, such as hushed pianissimos,
sound just a touch over prepared here.
Peterson-Berger’s romantic morceau was
originally written for violin and receives
an attractive performance but of rather
more interest is the trio of pieces
by Albéniz where Rondin teams
up with fellow cellist Jan-Erik Gustafsson.
The pizzicato guitar imitations impart
a suitably Iberian stamp to Asturias
and though there can be some congestion
textually in Sevilla these imaginative
arrangements by W Thomas-Mifume
repay the interested listener.
Rondin gets a bit of
grit into his tone in the Prokofiev
and this rawness is not inappropriate,
especially as a peppery preparation
for a trio of Fauré transcriptions.
Sicilienne suffers from a touch
of over-fastidiousness – it doesn’t
quite flow with enough lyric direction
– though he gets the right temperature
for the Berceuse. Both these
are accompanied by Mats Bergstrom’s
guitar which gives a sense of salon
airiness, whatever one’s view of these
transcriptions. Finally there’s Après
un rêve in the famous Casals
transcription, which is warmly done,
though lacking the expression of, say,
a Maurice Maréchal; I’m not very
keen on pianist Staffan Scheja’s rather
portentously funereal final chords.
There are some biographical
paragraphs on the instrumentalists but
nothing about the transcribers or their
transcriptions. Quite reasonable recorded
sound. At under fifty minutes this is
rather short value but you do get some
unusual arrangements for unaccustomed
instrumentation.
Jonathan Woolf