Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)
Cello Concerto in B flat major RV423 [10:50]
Cello Concerto in G minor RV416 [10:41]
Cello Concerto in A minor RV420 [12:15]
Cello Sonata in G minor RV42 [12:31]
Leonardo LEO (1694-1744)
Cello Concerto in D major [14:40]
Giovanni Benedetto PLATTI (1697-1763)
Cello Concerto in D minor WD657 [10:46]
Sol Gabetta (cello)
Cappella Gabetta/Andres Gabetta
rec. January 2011, Salle de Musique, La Chaux-de-Fonds
SONY CLASSICAL 88697932302 [71:13] 
As with the Red Priest’s violin works, string players looking for a well-researched
and appealingly constructed set of the Cello Concertos have quite a wide range
from which to choose. Cellist Sol Gabetta has constructed just such a recital
and performs it with her own Cappella, which is directed from the first violin
by Andreas Gabetta, though those fearing an all-Gabetta line-up will remain
disappointed. The Cappella is 6-1-1(and one cello continuo)-1, with harpsichord/organ
and theorbo/baroque guitar. There are no other string-playing Gabettas around.
Gabetta is a charismatic player with a number of well-regarded discs to her
name. She plays here with technical adroitness and a clear, springy approach
predicated on legato and a warmly textured vibrato. One abiding feature of
her playing, and it’s as well to discuss this first, is her approach to melodic
lines. Her approach is very often to engage in rather disruptive rubati. This
allows her to spin a delightfully sustained series of expressive gestures,
though at the cost of forward momentum. Her approach is at least consistent
though it is also, therefore, predictable. Your own response may well be more
sympathetic than my own; I feel that a less dramatic slowing would have allowed
room for the expressive expansion of certain passages, whilst not necessitating
the kind of metrical break that is occasioned by it.
Elsewhere she attends to the poised melancholy of the B flat major, enjoys
pointing up some dissonant turns of phrase in the opening movement of the
G minor – though possibly a bit too much – and catches the taut bowing possibilities
inherent in the finale of the same work. I like the organ accompaniment in
the A minor Concerto and the cello’s nobly musing playing of the Adagio.
The Cello Sonata in G minor is notable for a metrically bracing - and very
Gabetta – Sarabanda, full of speedings up and down.
There are also two interesting additions to the programme. Leonardo Leo is
well known as a composer for the cello. His D major work is, to my ears, more
of a suite than a concerto, but Gabetta and her group excavate some lovely
colours from its five movements and well crafted fugal finale. More interestingly
still we have the first ever recording of Giovanni Benedetto Platti’s D minor
Concerto. A generation younger than Vivaldi, and an almost exact contemporary
of Leo, Platti’s work is a lyrically persuasive one, and also enshrines some
fugal activity in its finale. The three movements are finely turned, and the
craft, and skill, undeniable. This appealing work should certainly be taken
up by ambitious cellists, keen to expand their repertoires.
The recital has been well recorded, with continuo instruments judged nicely
in the balance, and not too prominently. Interpretatively, however, things
may well hinge on reactions to Gabetta’s expansive rubati.
Jonathan Woolf
Things may well hinge on reactions to Gabetta’s expansive rubati.