Four Visions of France

Album review

Some recordings are love at first sound. Others take a few minutes to work their way into one’s affections. With “Four Visions of France” it’s most definitely a case of the former, because right from the first seconds of its curtain-raising Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 you know you’re in for a ripping ride, as that initial fortissimo orchestral chord explodes with a sharp, plump bang around Berlin’s Jesus-Christus-Kirche, followed after a nanosecond by an urgent yet supremely elegant, legato’d, rubato’d Müller-Schott.

Then onwards, and it’s a constant succession of fresh pleasures: the noblesse, sophistication, range of colours and technical finesse that Müller-Schott has brought to the three through-written movements’ continuously shifting landscapes; his capacity for gossamer delicacy, such as his exquisite pianissimo leap up to high A in bar 72 (first movement); then the degree to which the orchestra under Bloch can create an airily floating pianissimo, together with the light transparency and supple flow they’re bringing to the table overall. Essentially, it’s not hard to hear the fruits either of bringing in Alexandre Bloch (chief conductor of the Orchestre National de Lille, and a cellist himself), or of Müller-Schott’s early exposure to this repertoire and the French cello school via his teachers Walter Nothas and Heinrich Schiff – both Paris pupils of André Navarra.

It really is four very distinct visions of French music too, because from the Saint-Saëns of 1872 with its light colours and impressionistic transparency, we then move to Honegger’s Cello Concerto in C major of 1929, full of the influence of Stravinsky and jazz – and make sure you enjoy the terrific trumpet playing, plus the chamber awareness between Müller-Schott and the orchestra as they flex their jazz bones. Lalo’s D minor Concerto (1876) meanwhile brings darker, more Brahmsian colours flecked with Spanish fire.

Add Fauré’s Élégie’s (1880) warm, lyric Romanticism – met but never over-egged by Müller-Schott, his many micro-colourings including some ear-prickingly dark portamenti on the theme’s restatement before the central section – plus Saint-Saëns’s Romance in F major to conclude by bringing is back full circle to light transparency, and this really is a recording to savour. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz