CD REVIEW: Schumann: Cello Concerto (Truls Mørk)
Matthew Rye of the (London) Daily Telegraph offers his view of the new CD (3/21/05):
Schumann: Cello Concerto
Bloch: Schelomo
Bruch: Kol nidrei
Truls Mørk (cello), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, cond Paavo Järvi
Virgin VC5 45664 2, £12.99
Although Dvorák's Cello Concerto must count as the ultimate Romantic expression of the medium, Schumann's does not lie too far behind. Truls Mørk is one of the world's more cool-headed cellists, and he responds to Schumann's sense of elegiac longing with an understated and subtly shaped interpretation that dwells on fantasy rather than boldness. This is an approach that the work can comfortably encompass. It is not without its moments of passion - indeed, to the extent that Mørk's vocalisations as he plays begin to intrude - but the feeling of meditativeness dominates.
Almost the concerto's equal in length, though in a single movement, Bloch's Schelomo is another work that couples pensiveness with ardour, and Mørk proves an eloquent cantor in this honest dissection of life's illusions expressed purely through music. The Jewish theme is capped with an equally touching account of Bruch's Kol nidrei.
Parvo Järvi and the French Radio Philharmonic provide solid support, though the recorded balance perhaps favours Mørk just a little too readily.
Schumann: Cello Concerto
Bloch: Schelomo
Bruch: Kol nidrei
Truls Mørk (cello), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, cond Paavo Järvi
Virgin VC5 45664 2, £12.99
Although Dvorák's Cello Concerto must count as the ultimate Romantic expression of the medium, Schumann's does not lie too far behind. Truls Mørk is one of the world's more cool-headed cellists, and he responds to Schumann's sense of elegiac longing with an understated and subtly shaped interpretation that dwells on fantasy rather than boldness. This is an approach that the work can comfortably encompass. It is not without its moments of passion - indeed, to the extent that Mørk's vocalisations as he plays begin to intrude - but the feeling of meditativeness dominates.
Almost the concerto's equal in length, though in a single movement, Bloch's Schelomo is another work that couples pensiveness with ardour, and Mørk proves an eloquent cantor in this honest dissection of life's illusions expressed purely through music. The Jewish theme is capped with an equally touching account of Bruch's Kol nidrei.
Parvo Järvi and the French Radio Philharmonic provide solid support, though the recorded balance perhaps favours Mørk just a little too readily.
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