Two great British cello concertos on one excellent mid-priced reissue! It’s an offer too good to miss, and these performances by Yo-Yo Ma with the London Symphony Orchestra under André Previn are superb. In the enigmatic Walton work, Ma’s cerebral account comes closer in atmosphere to Gregor Piatigorsky’s premiere recording than any other I know. Hear how Ma floats the high-flown solo lines at the start, closely matching the airiness that Piatigorsky produced by using only the required amount of bow pressure (both performers use tight, rapid vibrato)–yet the intensity of sound is totally idiomatic. Compare these two cellists to Lyn Harrell (with Rattle and the CBSO on EMI) whose muddy, over-wrought sound and heavyweight approach, even in the scherzo, rules him out as prime contender. It’s also worth mentioning the impressive Naxos reading from Tim Hugh (paired with Dong-Suk Kang’s version of Walton’s violin concerto), which is coercively beautiful and technically adroit. But Ma achieves far more extreme pianissimo playing in the opening themes of first and last movements and also finds more color and tension in the heartrending sequence part way through the scherzo. Ma’s is the more deeply considered account, never lacking in virtuoso terms and bolstered by Previn’s accompaniments, which are strong and spontaneous when needed but also alive to the reflective and introspective moments of the work, of which there are many.
Ma’s performance of the Elgar concerto is again superb, both in its controlled dignity and in its spacious eloquence. The big gestures are all there, with a powerfully arresting opening flourish and tellingly graded handling of the meandering first theme. Ma also is highly alert to dynamic indications, so practically no two measures of the recitative passage before the Scherzo sound the same, just as Elgar intended. The clarity and precision in the Scherzo are pretty astounding, too, and all the while Previn’s accompaniments are ideally measured and controlled. In the Adagio, Ma’s sostenuto playing and simple, unaffected style lets the music make its own point. Technically, the whole performance is faultless (Du Pré’s famous heart-tugging interpretation with Barbirolli certainly isn’t), though Steven Isserlis (with the LSO and Hickox) on Virgin is sometimes more subtle and interesting, especially in his treatment of the final page’s flashbacks, where you hardly dare draw breath as the Adagio’s theme returns. Sony’s recording is in the demonstration category, however, and with Previn’s distinguished support throughout, this is the one to go for. At the price, it’s a snip!
