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Track(s) taken from CDA67831

Mazurka in G minor, Op 11 No 3

composer
dedicated to Bernhard Cossmann

Alban Gerhardt (cello), Cecile Licad (piano)
Recording details: June 2010
Concert Hall, Wyastone Estate, Monmouth, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by Simon Eadon
Release date: June 2011
Total duration: 3 minutes 24 seconds

Cover artwork: Photograph of Alban Gerhardt. Sim Canetty-Clarke
 

Reviews

‘[Gerhardt] and the superb Cecile Licad are wholly successful in this endeavour from the outset … he has created a well-contrasted programme … each work is presented with stylish devotion … this is cello playing of exquisite sophistication and bold imagination’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘There is much more to an encore, as Alban Gerhardt will tell you, than casually capping a recital with an audience-pleaser … listen to Gerhardt in Benjamin Godard’s Berceuse de Jocelyn and there is a paradigm of the exceptional eloquence and discernment that distinguishes the entire disc’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Gerhardt's playing [is] less heart-on-sleeve than Casals's own, but wonderfully eloquent and noble: he can be extraordinarily moving in such once-familiar standards as the Berceuse from Godard's Jocelyn, or in Casals's arrangement of Chopin's Raindrop Prelude’ (The Guardian)

‘Let me not turn tedious with a list of Gerhardt's superior skills, his seamless legato, his command of bowing skills, his generous tone even at the top of the A string, his glowing burnished double stops in the Popper/Chopin Nocturne … it goes without saying, though I better say it, that the playing is immaculate from both players, the sequence of pieces on the CD is nicely contrasted’ (International Record Review)
‘Whatever people’s opinion of David Popper’, declared Pablo Casals, ‘I will play his music as long as I play the cello, for no other composer wrote better for the instrument.’ Popper was born in Prague in 1843 and, as a child, learnt to play the piano and violin. However, when he went to study at the Prague Conservatory at the age of twelve, he was persuaded to take up the cello instead as there was a shortage of cellists in the city at that time. Popper became an internationally renowned virtuoso, and also composed many pieces for his instrument. One of the most popular, the Mazurka in G minor Op 11 No 3, he dedicated to Bernhard Cossmann who, like Leo Schulz, had been leader of the cello section of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. In 1912 Popper heard Casals play this Mazurka as an encore at a concert which had also included his effervescent Chanson villageoise.

from notes by Peter Avis © 2011

«Quelle que soit l’opinion des gens sur David Popper», a déclaré Pablo Casals, «je jouerai sa musique aussi longtemps que je jouerai du violoncelle, car aucun autre compositeur n’a mieux écrit pour cet instrument». Popper est né à Prague en 1843 et, dans son enfance, il a appris à jouer du piano et du violon. Toutefois, lorsqu’il est allé faire ses études au conservatoire de Prague à l’âge de douze ans, il s’est laissé convaincre de se mettre au violoncelle car on manquait de violoncellistes dans la ville à cette époque. Popper est devenu un virtuose de renommée internationale et a en outre composé de nombreuses pièces pour son instrument. L’une des plus populaires, la Mazurka en sol mineur, op. 11 no 3, est dédiée à Bernhard Cossmann qui, comme Leo Schulz, avait été violoncelle solo de l’Orchestre du Gewandhaus de Leipzig. En 1912, Popper a entendu Casals jouer cette mazurka en bis à un concert au programme duquel figurait aussi son exubérante Chanson villageoise.

extrait des notes rédigées par Peter Avis © 2011
Français: Marie-Stella Pâris

„Egal, was die Leute von David Popper halten“, erklärte Pablo Casals, „ich werde seine Musik spielen so lange ich Cello spiele, denn kein anderer Komponist hat besser für das Instrument geschrieben.“ Popper wurde 1843 in Prag geboren und lernte als Kind Klavier und Geige. Als er mit zwölf Jahren zum Studium an das Prager Konservatorium kam, ließ er sich jedoch überreden, mit dem Cellospiel zu beginnen, da in der Stadt damals ein Mangel an Cellisten herrschte. Popper wurde ein international gefeierter Virtuose und schrieb daneben zahlreiche Stücke für sein Instrument. Eines der beliebtesten, die Mazurka g-Moll op. 11 Nr. 3, widmete er Bernhard Cossmann, der wie Leo Schulz Stimmführer im Leipziger Gewandhausorchester gewesen war. 1912 hörte Popper, wie Casals diese Mazurka als Zugabe in einem Konzert spielte, bei dem außerdem seine überschäumende Chanson villageoise erklungen war.

aus dem Begleittext von Peter Avis © 2011
Deutsch: Arne Muus

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