Clearly I jumped the
gun when I confidently announced in
my last review of this Casals series
that volume 2 marked the end of the
‘Encores and Transcriptions’ collection
from Naxos. Still, the track listing
gives us a subsidiary series title;
The Complete Acoustic Recordings 1.
Casals’ reissues have been somewhat
problematic – I recall the Biddulph
edition and earlier the Pearl LPs –
and it’s true that his is a somewhat
difficult discography to get to grips
with, there being so many encore pieces
and bonbons.
Nevertheless it remains
for me to confirm that Ward Marston
has utilised clean sounding American
Columbias, transferred with presence
and a minimum of inevitable shellac
crackle. The programme is a typical
one, mixing legato pleasers and the
occasional piece by Popper to keep cello
gymnasts on their mettle. So from his
1915-16 discs we have prime examples
of the repertoire; his Elgar, with discreetly
glutinous orchestral support, laced
with elegant portamenti, and the harp
accompanied Handel being amongst the
best known. But his Tartini is very
expressive in the grand romantic manner,
and here is his first recording of Bruch’s
Kol Nidrei to bear comparison with the
more famous Landon Ronald disc of the
30s. Even something as ubiquitous as
The Swan falls to Casals’ mastery of
diminuendi and expressive flexibility
and the Popper Mazurka is laced with
the Catalan’s provocative wit and sheer
grace. It’s a shame that Après
un rêve, in Casals’ famous
arrangement, has so over-recorded a
piano accompaniment, which does tend
to draw the ear. But compensation comes
in the form of four movements from Bach’s
Suite in C major. As before in this
series the logistics of compilation
have meant that Encores and Transcriptions
doesn’t really cover it. Three movements
were recorded in 1915 and the Gigue
came from a session the following year.
Casals’ role in propagandising for the
suites is of course well known but it’s
a notable opportunity to acquaint ourselves
with his earliest recordings of Bach,
ones that predate the 1930s Columbia
sets of the complete suites by fully
thirty years or so. The playing is notably
advanced stylistically, imbued nevertheless
with the same warmth and acumen that
vitalised the later discs.
However many more discs
there may be left in this series they
will serve the catalogue well; Casals
is the First Folio of cellists on record.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review
by Patrick Waller
Pablo Casals (cello) 