Sol Gabetta Saint-Saëns & Lalo Cello Concertos

Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No 2 in D minor Op 119; Cello Concerto No 1 in A minor; Lalo Cello Concerto in D minor

Sol Cabetta violincello
Les Siècles, Fraçois-Xavier Roth conductor

Sony Classical 9802800182

There is much to savour on this disc, not least the chance to hear three French cello concertos side by side. Sol Gabetta, joined by Les Siècles on period instruments, sets Saint-Saëns's two concertos alongside Lalo's Cello Concerto in D minor, and her playing throughout is quite wonderful.

She opens not with the familiar First Concerto but with Saint-Saëns's Second, written in the composer's late sixties, long after the First, and a very different creature. Cast in just two movements, it is fiercely demanding, and Gabetta meets its virtuosic challenges, its fiendish passagework and relentless double-stopping, with complete assurance. She tackles it with real physical vigour, yet never at the expense of the composer's lyricism, and the resonant lower register of her instrument is glorious. The orchestral accompaniment is sensitive and finely judged, the woodwind particularly lovely.

There is a generosity of feeling in her playing, too, and an intimate understanding of her instrument that yields a lovely variety of texture. The short second movement, barely six minutes long, gathers an untamed energy as the pace quickens towards the close.

In the First Concerto, the delicacy of the orchestral writing in the central section allows every detail to emerge, and the solo entry is beautifully placed.

Lalo is remembered chiefly for his Symphonie espagnole, but his cello concerto richly repays attention. Gabetta goes straight to the heart of the piece, not least in the lyrical central passage of the first movement. Her honeyed tone is a delight, above all in the gorgeous Intermezzo, where the orchestral strings shine too. The work wears its Spanish influences openly, and Gabetta draws out its theatrical, almost vocal, colouring.

Her playing is fluent throughout, her agility impressive and her rhythmic precision unerring, while soloist and orchestra alike embrace the full Romantic sweep of these scores. Period instruments are often sold as a corrective to excess; here they serve the opposite purpose, lending these concertos a warmth and freshness that makes a persuasive case for all three.