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 New Year cellists: Perényi, Altstaedt & GabettaThree fine discs received on New Year's Eve Bach, J S: Cello Suite No. 6 in D major; Britten: Suite No. 3, Op. 87; Ligeti: Sonata Miklós Perényi, solo cello ECM 476 4166 Miklós Perényi (b. Jan 1948) is a senior Hungarian cellist and teacher (composer too, Wikipedia tells us), a known name but one I cannot recall hearing for many years. This is a model solo programme, recorded in the acoustically ideal studio of Radio Lugano. I played it straight through upon arrival; an oasis during holiday mayhem... Marvellously restorative; I doubt if it is bettered by any of its numerous rivals for each work (all of them listed conveniently by Presto Classical). Sofia Gubaidulina The Canticle of the Sun & The Lyre of Orpheus Nicholas Altstaedt, with a chamber group & Riga Chamber Choir, is the cello protagonist in an extraordinary work, in the middle of which he retunes his instrument before abandoning it altogether, playing for a time on bass drum & then flexatone with a double bass-bow, before returning to his proper instrument up to its highest possible tone; a throughly visual concept which cries out for DVD instead of CD, to which ECM is still wedded (q.v.our Thomas Larcher review). This is an increasing theme, which looks to continue next year. It is coupled with The Lyre of Orpheus directed by Gidon Kremer, which Gubaidulina builds to an extraordinary climax with "pulsating difference tones". Michel van der Aa Up-close for solo cello, string ensemble and film (2010)
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Also from Proper Note distributors, a remarkable DVD film - "a cello concerto duplicated and magnified until it reaches the boundary of video opera". With a "look-alike" mother & daughter, an indescribable illusionist creation, a fascinating piece "about the ritual or failure of communication". Not to everyone's taste, but I was riveted from start to finish. Peter Grahame Woolf See also Michel van der Aa in Spitalfields Festival
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