Customer Reviews

Samuel Barber: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 - Cello Concerto

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wendy Warner's recording of the Barber Cello Concerto is a more satisfying account than the recordings by Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis or Raphael Wallfisch. Each of these other recordings commend themselves for various reasons, but Ms. Warner's account brings together a searching musicality, technical command, poignant lyricism, and a beautiful stereo acoustic.

Marin Alsop is a skilled Barber interpreter. Her support for Ms. Warner is admirable. The Medea Ballet Suite is an interesting work, although I prefer hearing the abridged "Dance of Vengeance" which is made up of 3 of the movements from this larger work.

The Adagio for Strings is also beautifully done.

In summary, this disc would be worthy of collection even if it were full price. Obtaining it at a bargain price makes it indispensable.

Barber's cello concerto of 1945 remains one of the finest composed for the instrument of the last century. The reason for its neglect is probably its extreme difficulty, but with the current generation of super-virtuoso's the music is slowly taking its rightful place in the repertory. And what music it is! Considered by Barber, and many music critics, to be one of his most successful scores, the cello concerto contains some of Barber's most beautiful and invigorating writing. All the hallmarks of Barber's style are here: the rich tonal harmony, the rhythmic complexity, the taughtness of architectural structure and the poignent, searching lyricism. The cello sings consistently high above the orchestra with aching passion. Anyone who has any liking for 20th century music should hear this piece (and I am sure only extreme conservatives could describe it as 'abstruse'.) In mood it is exactly between the ravishing beauty of the violin concerto and the powerful drive of the piano concerto.

As to the recording, this one is without a doubt the finest on record. The brilliant young Canadian cellist Wendy Warner has played this piece more than just about anyone, and she understands its dark lyricism and passionate tone better than any of her more famous rivals. This is the first 'great' recording of this work, though Yo-Yo Ma, Gastinel and Nelsova are worth hearing for various reasons. The recordings by Garbousova, Wallfisch, Vogler, Rose, Tobias and Kirschbaum are all servicable, and some are certainly better than others, but none impressed me as much as the Warner. The support that Alsop and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra is absolutely first class and the recording is astonishingly clear.

The Medea Ballet Suite of 1947 is another of Barber's strongest works and also won great critical acclaim, notably of the notoriously ascerbic Virgil Thomson, who commented (in his typically guarded style): 'it brings its author suspiciously close to the clear status of a master'. It is a powerful and moving work, even as 'pure; concert music - it juxtaposes harshly dissonant 'modern' harmoy with Barber's trademark lyricism - it is reminiscent of Stravisnky's own early Ballet music, especially the Firebird. It is good to have the whole suite presented here rather than the more commonly presented shorter movement which Barber crafted out of the last three movements of the suite. There is much beautiful woodwind writing that is lost in the cut down version. Again Alsop and the Royal Scottish give a passionate and involving reading that provides great advocacy for this also underplayed work.

The final piece on the CD is the famous Adagio for Strings, which is an arrangement of the slow movement of the string quartet. This is so famous that it is barely worth commenting on, but Alsop gives a flowing, but not fast, reading that is quite welcome after the indulgences of many versions. Not the best recording of this popular classic, but a very fine reading nonetheless.

All in all a superb CD, and at budget price, anyone who has any interest in 20th century music would be a fool to miss it. Another winner from Naxos!

Wendy Warner has long been a champion of this thorny concerto and gave its premiere in Barber's hometown of Philadelphia. She has an extraordinary grasp of its deeply American lyricism. At the Naxos price this is a fabulous find.

This recording for quality and price, is perfect for anyone who is curious about Sam Barber's stuff. The whole Alsop/Barber series on Naxos is worth having! The cello concerto is a big number 2 behind the violin concerto, but still a masterpiece!

The music on the second installment in Naxos's Barber series isn't as striking as the music on the first. Still, Barber is one of those composers who deserve to have their complete output represented on disc, so this is an important release, also because the music is generally very well performed. That said, I have some qualms about giving this one an unreserved recommendation - the sound quality is somewhat constricted and flat, making the impact of the music less vivid and visceral than the performances themselves are good for.

The Medea Suite doesn't quite represent Barber at his most inspired, even if it is an effective and colorful work - the reworking as `Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance' is more effective but still not anywhere close to Barber's best works. The cello concerto is a better work - structurally a little awkward and not in the league of the violin concerto but still a valuable addition to the repertoire. Wendy Warner is a compelling soloist, but she doesn't match Yo-Yo Ma and neither is the playing of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Alsop as stirringly white-hot as they were in the symphonies.

Yet it is by all means a fine performance and no one coming to the music for the first time through this disc should feel short-changed. The ubiquitous Adagio for Strings also receives a fine performance, tasteful and shorn of any trace of cloying sentimentality. It all adds up to a fine release if not quite a front-runner.

In my opinion , Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 is the greatest piece of American music ever ! A true genius .

HEARD A PIECE OF HIS WORK ON A CLASSICAL MUSIC STATION AND DECIDED TO TRY A CD-GLAD I DID, IT WAS VERY ENJOYABLE. AS A SCULPTOR I FOUND IT VERY INSPIRATIONAL.

In this second volume of her survey of Barber's orchestral music, Marin Alsop begins with a really tough nut, the wandering, often shapeless Cello Concerto. It's a work built up on a medloic base but featuring only fragments of song and a great deal of noodling on the cello that is baffling to follow. The solo part tends to lie very high, where the cello's sound is quite weak, so the orchestral part has to be soft enough for us to hear what's going on. Nobody's ever quite conquered the work, which is ten minutes too long. Wendy Warner and Alsop collaborate on a gentle, inward reading that seems to work as well as any I've heard from Steven Isserlis or Yo-Yo Ma.

Barber wrote his Medea ballet for Martha Graham in 1947. It's a stark, bloody subject, and Graham was an uncompromising modernist, not the best fit with the sentimental composer. Barber explores an idiom that often sounds more Arab-Eastern European than Greek to me, but Medea is a witch from the East. In most respects, though, this is Barber's familiar blend of lush melody and modernist gestures a la Walter Piston and William Schuman, but wihtout fierceness. What's really of interest is the solo music he wrote for Graham herself--moody, apprehensive lines undercut with menace. This is an important score, and it's very good to have Barber's lengthy suite from the ballet, even if Alsop's reading is rather tame.

Finally, to sweeten the pot we get the immortal Adagio for Strings, which conductors pace everywhere from a flowing Andante to a dirge-like Largo. At 7:46 Alsop is right in the middle. She sees this as a lullabye without tragic implications--I wish she'd found more of the music's heartache, as Bernstein so unforgettably did.