4.0 out of 5 stars
An emotive collection from Mitteleuropa and parts East, October 2, 2011
This review is from: Chants D'Est (Audio CD)
This is a strong album bound together by the idea of "Eastern Europe" -- which for me has always been a slippery concept. Eastern Europe as we think of it today only came into existence after the Cold War. The Iron Curtain drew a clear, easy to understand line between East and West.
But that line didn't exist when this music was written. So, does it make any sense in the context of this album? We can't really suggest in any serious way that the Russian Orthodox tradition reflected in Rachmaninov's "Vespers" -- the source of the first track -- has much to do with traditional, klezmer-ish Jewish traditionals from Mitteleuropa found later on.
Still, cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton has put together a fine, coherent album that hangs together well stylistically. Part of that is due to rearrangement -- the Rachmaninov excerpt was written for Russian choir but is here transcribed for orchestra, with the strings pulling the weight of the chorus and the cello taking on the solo voice. There has been other arrangement specifically for this album here, including the Dohnanyi pieces and the Jewish traditionals, helping maintain consistency. In some places, the rearrangement is limited -- the main change in the Mahler, for example, seemed to be the cello taking the place of the vocal soloist.
But the real touchstone tying the album together, I realized after a few listens, is melancholy. It's the wintry feeling reflected in the soloist's bundled-up album cover (probably taken in a hot photographer's studio). It's done well.
The cello is highly emotive, bringing out feelings of aching sadness and wistful longing in turns. I exaggerate only slightly if I say I wanted to check a few times to make sure it was a cello and not an erhu album. Tons of legato, tremolo, vibrato. The effect is pleasant, but if sentimentality turns you off, you may need to look elsewhere.
This is a solid album -- recommended and certainly worth hearing.
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