COMPOSERS: Boccherini
LABELS: Naxos
ALBUM TITLE: Boccherini Cello Concertos
WORKS: Cello Concerto No. 9; Cello Concerto No. 10; Cello Concerto No. 11; Cello Concerto No. 12
PERFORMER: Raphael WallfischNorthern Chamber OrchestraNicholas Ward
CATALOGUE NO: 8.557589
It may or may not be purely
coincidental that this third volume
in Naxos’s issue of the complete
Boccherini Cello Concertos has been
released in the year that marks the
200th anniversary of the composer’s
death. Whatever the case, this new
recording, featuring an entirely
different soloist and orchestra from
the previous volumes, should not
disappoint collectors of the entire
cycle. Raphael Wallfisch proves to
be a most stylish and sympathetic
performer. He has the necessary
technical armoury to cope with
the fearsomely difficult writing in
each concerto, but also delivers a
wonderfully expressive melodic line
in the slow movements. Throughout
Wallfisch plays his own cadenzas
which are free from Romantic bluster
and empty virtuosity.
The partnership with the Northern
Chamber Orchestra works very well,
though the reverberant and muddy
recording does not always serve the
music to its best advantage. While the
rather heavy bass line seems apposite
for movements such as the Maestoso of the C major Concerto, it appears to
undermine the lightness and wit of
the rondo finale of the well-known
B flat Concerto, and makes some
of the slow movements sound more
lugubrious than one might have
expected. Erik Levi
