C.P.E. BACH: Cello Concerto in A Minor, Wq 170; Cello Concerto in B-flat Major, Wq 171; Cello Concerto in A Major, Wq 172 – Raphael Wallfisch, cello/Scottish Ensemble/Jonathan Morton – Nimbus NI 5848, 67:48 [Distr. by Allegro] ****:
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach supplied the court of Frederick the Great with a diverse spectrum of music, and the three cello concertos given here were composed 1750-1753, likely for virtuoso Ignaz Mara, a Bohemian who served as first cellist of the Royal Chamber Music. Borrowing some techniques from his esteemed father’s cello suites, Bach exploits middle and low registers of the instrument, utilizing the ritornello form of the concerto that favors the light, brisk style of the eighteenth century, given the “swooping” character of Bach’s melodies.
The A Minor Concerto offers audacious pleasures in its first movement, consisting of a series of dialogues in 3/2 between the orchestra and the solo, each finishing the other’s phrases. The theme itself is made up of five notes and serves as a ritornello for the solo to vary upon each entry. The 6/8 Andante in C Major is one of those eloquent testimonials to Bach’s pre-Classical style, moving briefly into G Major and E Minor. Virtuosic passagework marks the finale: Allegro assai, in which all of the ensuing materials and dancing syncopes emerge from the first for bars. The last two minutes enjoy quick exchanges between solo and ripieno, only to have Wallfisch sail into his highest register and drop and octave for the climax.
The B-flat Concerto proves lighter and more lyrically decorative than the A Minor Concerto. Triplets and dotted rhythms mark the opening Allegretto, the cello often moving with an accompanying instrument, a viola or the continuo harpsichord. Wallfisch’s singing tone–on his chosen 1760 Gennaro Gagliano instrument–savors its many opportunities to sing as well as to saw, and we feel a more technical proficiency demanded here than in the A Minor. A bravura passage in G Minor wants Wallfisch to dance while flexing trills off the beat. Another C Major meditation characterizes the Adagio, which puts the cello against the basso, the first violin moving twice as fast as the dominant rhythms. Wallfisch plays an affecting cadenza before the music modulates into G Minor for its final ritornello, the melody having been altered in Bach’s usual fashion of elaboration and extension. The Allegro assai finale might have been stolen from Vivaldi’s happy output, especially as a fermata announces an explosion of abandoned, youthful energies. The cello does enter into B-flat Minor for some striking duets then the cello wanders into G Minor. Scales and passionate arpeggios fly from Wallfisch’s bow in the course–via a brief, affecting cadenza–of re-establishing B-flat Major as the key upon which to end a most serendipitous journey.
The A Major Concerto (1753) proves the most galant of the three concertos offered on this disc. The solo work has again increased its demands, calling for extensive rapid passages and scales in 16ths and curlicues in the high registers. Some deft color touches occur as Bach changes keys to E Major and D Major. Bach’s penchant for off-beat dotted rhythms and plangent harmonies has rarely been given a lovelier vehicle. The Largo is not only elegiac; it directly quotes–in the violins and basso–J.S. Bach’s Sinfonia in F Minor from the 3-Part Inventions. The violins, which open in their lowest register, carry a great emotional weight in the minor keys, along with the passing dissonances in the solo cello. The solo cadenza, too, carries the imprimatur of the father’s unaccompanied Sarabande from the suites for cello. To offset the gloom of the Largo, the last movement Allegro molto’s 6/8 entry flies in with two themes in the ritornello and the solo cello in 2/4. The sheer series of dynamic and rhythmic contrasts guarantee that we pay strict attention to the virtuosity of all principals. The first violin–leader Jonathan Morton playing his 1640 Amati–also has a cadenza to match his colleague Wallfisch, who has shone in each of these demanding and scintillating works, of which the B-flat should be standard listening.
–Gary Lemco
