CHOPIN: Sonata in G Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 65; Prelude in A Minor, Op. 28 No. 2 (arr. Stern and Gaillard); Nocturne in G Major, Op. 37 No. 2; Prelude in E Minor, Op. 28 No. 4 (arr. Stern and Gaillard); Nocturne in G Minor, Op. 37 No. 1; Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C Major, Op. 3; Nocturne in E Minor, Op. 72 No. 1 (arr. Stern and Gaillard); Waltz in A Minor, KK IVb No. 11 (arr. Stern and Gaillard) – Ophélie Gaillard, cello / Edna Stern, piano – Aparté AP003 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi], 62:16 ****1/2:
Completed in 1846 and premiered in February of 1847, the Cello Sonata figured in Chopin’s last public performance, given a year later at the Salle Pleyel, where as a matter of course he would have used an instrument supplied by Pleyel et Cie. Not coincidentally, in the current recording Edna Stern plays the piano part on an 1843 Pleyel grand piano, a salon model known as the petit patron. Chopin undoubtedly owned and played pianos very much like it if not this exact model, thus it’s a fitting gesture to try to recreate the sound he would have been familiar with. If that’s been done on disc before now, however, I haven’t been able to track down such a rival recording, so Gaillard and Stern seem to have the field to themselves. Fortunately, they give us an elegant and eloquent reading of the Sonata as well as a mostly very satisfying program of other Chopin works, some original, some in arrangement.
Chopin apparently wrestled for some time with the Cello Sonata, feeling especially stressed to achieve the proper balance between the cello and the piano, which he did by carefully parceling out the melodic material to the two instruments. Some critics have noted that this careful balancing act resulted in a composition that doesn’t sound terribly Chopinesque. Certainly there’s a big difference between the piano part in this work and in the Introduction and Polonaise brillante, also on the current disc. In the latter piece, written when the composer was a mere nineteen, the piano performs the usual Chopin acrobatics, weaving a good deal of filigree work around the more sedate cello part. The Chopin of the Sonata is older and wiser in a number of ways: not only is this work far more balanced and accomplished, it’s one of Chopin’s most profound, with an air of brooding melancholy and, in the noble first movement, of a kind of doomed heroism. Only the freewheeling Scherzo sounds like the Chopin of old; even the more brightly tinged rondo finale is subdued compared to the other music Chopin wrote for piano and additional instruments.
Gaillard’s Francesco Grofriller cello and Stern’s Pleyel grand help even more to emphasize the balance Chopin achieved in the Sonata. The two instruments seem perfectly matched, both creating a sound that’s burnished, with a dusky sort of sheen. (The notes to the recording speak of a silvery tone to the upper range of the piano. Platinum-y or even pewter-y might provide a more apt metaphor.) Plus the playing itself is very fine—secure but daring when it needs to be, attuned to the several competing moods in this music, whether brooding, impassioned, or carefree, as in some of the earlier pieces on the program. The sound engineers have achieved a perfect balance as well, in a recording that’s close-up but with a nice sense of air around the instruments.
The only objection I have is that the arrangement of the two Preludes gives the piano little to do. It involves the simple transference of the melody line to the cello, leaving the piano to pound out the left-hard chords from Chopin’s solo-piano originals. Somehow, this has the effect of making music of profound simplicity seem almost dull. I would rather have heard more of Stern playing solo, as in the two Nocturnes, or perhaps the pair playing Chopin’s other work for cello and piano, the Grand Duo Concertante. But this is a minor objection, really. For the most part, this disc supplies music-making that approaches the revelatory, and I highly recommend it.
– Lee Passarella
