American Record Guide
KABALEVSKY: Cello Concerto 2; SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto
KABALEVSKY: Cello Concerto 2;
SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto
Theodor Lyngstad; Copenhagen Philharmonic / Eva Ollikainen
OUR 8.226926 — 52 minutes
The Kabalevsky is handsome and inoffensive, the Schumann efficient and mostly handsome, except Lyngstad fails to connect Schumann’s several tall leaps in I, emitting some comically flatulent bass notes. I doubt that was Schumann’s intent. Steven Isserlis (M/A 1998) and Maria Kliegel (N/D 1995) connect the leaps with careful dynamic tapering and vibrato. Kliegel is rapt and subjective and lyrical in the extreme, her improvisatory licence sometimes wrong-footing the orchestra for a few seconds, until the conductor restores the beat. Isserlis is more objective and linear. His 1989 recording of the Kabalevsky is a classic, his tone voluptuous and gutty. He wrests all the pathos from both inter-movement cadenzas and sounds frenzied in the presto II. Lyngstad is sedate by comparison. There are simply better choices available in these oft-recorded works, especially the Schumann, as it’s one of just two 19th-Century cello concertos by big-name composers. Wright