There are now quite
a number of recordings of the Cello
Sonata in the catalogue but an all-cello
Poulenc recital disc is very much a
rarity. And this isn’t quite that, anyway,
since we have the Sonata for two pianos
to augment the sonata, and some evocative
and very worthwhile transcriptions.
The Suite Française derives from
the chamber suite of 1935 that Poulenc
revised nearly twenty years later and
the Sérénade is
heard in the 1950 Maurice Gendron transcription.
Pianist John York, present throughout
in his guise as Wallfisch’s sonata partner
and as one half of the York2 Piano Duo,
contributes his own arrangements of
two Poulenc songs, and very effective
they are too (one is from Métamorphoses
de Louise de Vilmorin). So the disc
is a good hour’s worth of nostalgic,
acerbic, witty and naughty, in pretty
much equal proportions, not forgetting
of course, as if one could, Poulenc’s
irresistible ear for melodic beauty.
The Suite Française
summons up the sixteenth century dances
of Claude Gervaise and their antique
strain is both highly compressed and
lyrically charming. Wallfisch is particularly
effective in vesting a wide range of
glinting tone colours in the Compleinte,
the fourth of the seventh, in which
melancholy hovers heard but not indulged.
The fifth, a Bransle de Champagne,
has the vocalised strength of an aria
antiche. Of the two York song arrangements
the first, C’est ainsi que tu es,
makes an especial impression with
its telling melancholy lyricism though
both are very worthwhile additions to
the literature of Poulenc transcriptions.
The Sonata for two
pianos is captured by the York2 piano
duo with fervour; the tense tolling
and dramatic chording of the first movement
give way to well judged limpidity and
considerable delicacy when the same
material appears in less fervid form
later on. And that second movement kicks
in with pulsating vigour before a still,
silent reverie exerts its hypnotic hold
– for a brief instant. The highlight
though is the third movement, with its
noble burnish and romanticism and some
intense moments of intimate reflection,
excellently conveyed here.
Wallfisch and York
offer a communicative and aristocratic
performance of the Cello sonata. The
cellist’s tone offers subtle colouristic
hues and they rarely stint on the air
of affection and animation that underpins
this generally light hearted work. On
a rival disc Paul Watkins and Ian Brown
(Hyperion – with the complete chamber
music on two discs played by the Nash
Ensemble; CDA67255/6 review)
offer a similar kind of reading but
one that differs in detail, though not
in tempo, which is almost identical.
Watkins and Brown perhaps mine the pawky
humour of the sonata with more explicitness,
making contrasts that much tauter and
bigger than the Wallfisch-York duo.
But the latter’s rather more heavyweight
presentation certainly does justice
to the lyric core of the sonata and
both performances can be seen as complementary.
Of course the archive
should have the canonic cello sonata
recording made by dedicatee Fournier
and Jacques Février. You can
find one of its incarnations on a big
EMI box 566831-2 along with six hours
of Poulenc, amongst which you’ll also
find the Tacchino-Février two
piano sonata recording.
The recording at Champs
Hill is just a touch cavernous but it’s
suitably warm and catches the playing
well.
Jonathan Woolf
Raphael Wallfisch (cello) 
