Cello Concerto (arrangements)

Album review

Buyers in search of a recording of Schumann's Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, should take note: the work as composed by Schumann does not appear on this album. Instead it features two arrangements of the work, both of them contemporary and neither one that Schumann would have been likely to recognize. One might ask why, given that the Cello Concerto is not one of Schumann's more frequently programmed works (it was not even performed during his lifetime), this was really necessary, and indeed a pairing of the original concerto with the second of the two arrangements heard here might have made more sense. The first arrangement is for cello and string orchestra, and the second, designated as "for string quartet" in the graphics, is actually for four cellos. This is undeniably odd, but its saving grace is that it provides a way into this rather difficult work. Arranger Richard Klemm was a conservatory professor who was also involved with the founding of the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic. His arrangement was written with the intention of making student cellists aware of the intricate relationship between the solo cello part and the orchestra (the very quality to which Clara Schumann pointed in defending the concerto against its early detractors); each cellist would come to know the entire work inside out, so to speak. The arrangement radically reorients the listener's attention from the solo-ensemble contrast to the intricate motivic interplay that links solo and ensemble together, and as such it's an intriguing window on the work. As for the arrangement for cello and string orchestra by Florian Vygen and Alexander Kahl, the CD booklet has nothing to say about it, which may be because it's very hard to come up with any reason the effort should have been made. Nevertheless, the playing by cellist Benedict Klöckner is idiomatic, and this album may be of interest to hardcore Schumann buffs.
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