Program: HAYDN: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major; Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Major; Piano Concerto No. in D Major
Performers: Mstislav Rostropovich, cello and conductor/ Homero Francesch, piano/ Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/ Neville Mariner
Studio: EuroArts DVD 2072058 (Distrib. Naxos)
Video: 4:3 Color
Audio: PCM Stereo, DTS 5.1, Dolby 5.1
Length: 73 minutes
Rating: ****
Mstislav Rostropovich leads the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in 17-19 November 1975 tapings of the two Haydn cello concertos at Henry Wood Hall. His leader is the exemplary Iona Brown, herself a natural conductor from her firs chair. Seated in the midst of his players, Rostropovich is clearly primus inter pares, a designation the camera is ready to confirm, as it moves in and out from the bridge of Rostropovich’s instrument to full shots of the ensemble in furious tutti or in close up of French horn or violin against the solo. The brilliant allegro passages find the players in adept form, their long hair styles a testament to those crazy 1970s. Rostropovich is in alternately fleet and exalted form, his diminuendo a thing of facile beauty. He utilizes the bent endpin that cellist Tortelier had developed for more ease of execution. Ever since its discovery in 1961, the C Major Concerto has usurped the popularity of the D Major Concerto for brisk energy and high spirits. The utter relaxation with which Rostropovich delivers Haydn’s figures conceals the absolute mastery he has over the idiom. At every point of acceleration or rubato, the St. Martin players are there, and so is the camera.
As in the C Major Concerto, Rostropovich has his left hand already wrapped around his instrument, so he leads the D Major with big gestures from his right hand and arm. The camera zooms to the clarinets and horns, then pulls back for frontal shot of the entire group on stage. Rostropovich takes the cello entry a la Karajan, with his eyes closed. Iona Brown has the accompaniment well in hand, and the camera peers over her left shoulder and into Rostropovich’s burnished instrument. Occasionally, the camera dips low and shoots up at Rostropovich, a bit of Eisenstein to make him larger than life. We can savor the smooth fingering employed by Rostropovich, the steadiness of his bow arm. For richness of tone, we could hardly improve on the resonant songfulness of the performance. Nice work close to the bridge in harmonics. Wonderful double stops and slides in the cadenza, a huge trill. The St. Martin players enter for the coda on the drop of a dime. Rostropovich turns the stage into an intimate space for the Adagio. A disarmingly soft entry for the Rondo: Allegro. The camera moves from the solo cello to the French horns, then pulls back for the tutti statement. Then it’s all bridge work and suave bowing from Rostropovich right through to the last, polished chord.
As a kind of bonus, we have a performance from Bayreuth 23-27 November 1982 of the D Major Concerto by Uruguayan pianist Homero Francesch and Sir Neville Marriner. Francesch looks like a movie star acting as concert pianist, a Latin Dirk Bogarde. His touch is a mixture of strength and savvy lightness. His playing is sweetly aggressive, no overblown theatrics. Nice full frontal shot of Marriner, the baton moving while one eye looks down at the score. The camera pulls incrementally back for Haydn’s development section of the first movement. Then we zoom through the triangle of the upraised piano lid and back to Francesch’s hands. A smile on Marriner’s face as we head to the cadenza. Francesch throws off the cadenzas legato filigree beautifully, and we accelerate to the coda. Typical St. Martin elegance for the Un poco Adagio, which admits perhaps a touch of Haydn’s contemporary, Mozart. The repeated phrases assume a haunting allure, the symmetry of parts having become quite mesmerizing. Fluid technique from Francesch lights up Haydn’s arabesques and staccato figures. The little cadenza plays like a Bach invention which evolves into a gentle toccata. The Hungarian Rondo is all lucid style and diaphanous energy. The camera all but lifts the third and fourth fingers of Francesch’s right hand. Pull back for the orchestral punctuations of the theme. Fabulous articulation of the middle section, alla musette, then back to the ritornello. We move to the coda with a sigh of regret, the collaboration having been so lovely, and Haydn so forceful and charmingly persuasive. [Since the original recording was just stereo, there is little enhancement from either of the 5.1 surround options…Ed.]
— Gary Lemco
