LDV42

GARY HOFFMAN | LIÈGE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC | CHRISTIANARMING 29 Just under three years separate Bloch’s Schelomo from Elgar’s Concerto. Even if the war left its mark on both of them, their musical worlds are fairly remote from each other. Elgar’s Concerto has a highly unusual structure: the fourth movement takes up almost half of the work. Nevertheless, if you compare it to the great Romantic concertos, superficially it doesn’t seemall that different from the Dvořák Concerto, but in fact it is: the style, themusical language, themessage. And the narrative and parabolic style of Schelomo is obviously far removed from that. Yet I had no difficulty in moving from one to the other. What is more complicated, in a recording, is the orchestral texture, which is diametrically opposed in the two works. Schelomo is almost a symphonicpoemwitha substantial orchestral part that provides the sonic power, while the cello part unfolds in recitatives that are actually big cadenzas. Often the cello brings in a crescendo-accelerando, and then the orchestra grabs hold of it, as it were; from that point, it’s useless to write anything for the cello, because it won’t be heard. Bloch was very well aware of that, and so he leaves the sonic tsunamis to the orchestra alone, which creates a special dramaturgy that’s still unique. And then, towards the end of the work, the cello achieves a sombre poetry, and everything is transmitted through the intimate expression of the bow.