Natalie Clein, Suites for Solo Cello (Hyperion)Bloch's Suite no.1 unwinds as if from somewhere else. It is an immediately engaging beginning and for a moment had me wondering if the disc was playing properly in the same way that a critic recently checked Nemanja Radulovic's new Bach recording to see if it wasn't playing too fast. The opening could have gone on longer for me but that would keep us waiting for its subsequent tuneful, expressive movements that at no time am I going to compare with any other repertoire, however great the temptation might be.
One can't live permanently in the world of the viola da gamba and so I was glad to see that Natalie Clein's latest release concentrates on mid C20th solo cello music. Like her previous recording of Schelomo, it is admirable that she brings our attention to this fine, somewhat unclassified composer who is worthy of it.
These pieces, three suites, benefit from being played quite loud to better appreciate the nuances and phrasing of movements that continually flow and conjure new feelings and ideas in their unravelling. They have offered more and more through half a dozen plays so far and are unlikely to fall off the playlist for a while yet.
If one expects something more stylistically adventurous from Luigi Dallapiccola one is not disappointed by the strident triple forte 'dissonance' of the opening bars. Unsettled and unsettling, one is not allowed to linger long in its brief serene moments and stretched notes. Dating from 1945 and Dallapiccola being 'a fervent anti-fascist', one needs no temptation to assume some programmatic meaning in the music and appreciate its terse statements as passionate for good reason.
But if one's knowledge of Gyorgy Ligeti's music is limited to the fractured compositions that I knew, one might be surprised by his Sonata, opening with pizzicato and notes bending between phrases of lyrical longing. It looks into dark places but not forlornly or hopelessly. Whether or not it deliberately echoes the viola of Sainte-Colombe from three hundred years before, I don't know but it brings to mind the atmosphere of his brooding before Natalie is off in rapid passages of intense, and brilliant, explorations of the fingerboard.
This is not a place to begin listening to the solo cello repertoire but it is a fine place to have arrived at. The pieces make a coherent and compelling programme from this esoteric area of the catalogue, unflinching and deeply rewarding, repaying all the attention it continually draws out of the listener.
