Classical Albums:
Alban Gerhardt plays Bach, Britten, Kodály
- Main Performer: Alban Gerhardt
- Languages of Booklet Text: German, English
Review
Cellist Alban Gerhardt offers a quite satisfying disc of three varied but important works from the solo cello repertoire. The overall adjective to best describe this album is "intimate." Not only are works for solo instruments intimate and revealing by nature, but the actual recorded sound provides an additional degree of closeness that is not found on other significant recordings of these works. In the Britten First Suite, for example, the sound gives the impression that Gerhardt is not playing from a concert hall stage or a recording studio, but rather that he is sitting three feet in front of the listener in his/her living room. As such, the listener can truly hear everything that is going on: the production noise against the string, the slap of the string against the fingerboard in the pizzicato Serenata, and even the strike of Gerhardt's fingers in the fiendish Moto perpetuo.The remaining pieces on the album have a similarly desirable recorded sound. The Prelude to Bach's Fifth Suite is more driven than most recordings; the introduction and the fugue share the same pulse. The interpretation is nonetheless successful and Gerhardt seems more concerned with letting the music speak for itself and less concerned with over-embellishment. The Kodály Solo Sonata, yet another of the cornerstones of the solo cello literature, is energetic and brazen without being pretentious. Gerhardt's technique here, as in the rest of the album, is quite ample and allows him to showcase all of the subtlety and nuance found in the score. ~ Mike D. Brownell, All Music Guide
