CD Review
Various composers: Elgar, Ligeti, Stravinsky, Wagner (DVD/Blu-ray)
- Composer
- Elgar / Ligeti / Stravinsky / Wagner
- Artist
- Sol Gabetta, cello; Berliner Philharmoniker / Sir Simon Rattle
- Label
- EuroArts
- Catalogue
- 2059964
This EuroArts release documents Sol Gabetta’s 2014 Easter Festival debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker, made at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden under Sir Simon Rattle. The programme pairs Gabetta’s account of Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, the composer’s final major work, and one steeped in melancholy and farewell, with three very different orchestral showpieces: the Prelude to Act 1 of Wagner’s Lohengrin, Ligeti’s Atmosphères, and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.
Rattle and the orchestra set the Wagner and Ligeti against each other deliberately, two pieces that reach for a similarly otherworldly, iridescent sound through very different technical means, the one built from Wagner’s long Romantic paragraphs, the other from Ligeti’s dense micropolyphonic textures. Against that pairing, Stravinsky’s Rite looks forward rather than back: despite the work’s enduring modernity, the performance was singled out at the time for the sheer physical exhilaration of the playing.
At the centre of the programme, Gabetta’s Elgar received particular praise on release, Gramophone called it “one of the best around, a heartfelt, tonally rounded performance”, and the same Baden-Baden sessions also produced a purely audio recording of the concerto, released separately by Sony Classical alongside Martinů’s First Cello Concerto, using identical audio to the Blu-ray/DVD release reviewed here.
A note on this page
No named mmmusic staff review of this specific release survived in the archive we recovered, the page as captured consists of the label’s own recording summary together with genuine, dated press excerpts (Gramophone, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). Those quotes are reproduced above with their real attribution rather than presented as in-house critical opinion.
Questions about this recording
What's on this recording?
A filmed Berlin Philharmonic concert under Sir Simon Rattle: Wagner's Prelude to Act 1 of Lohengrin, Ligeti's Atmosphères, Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor with Sol Gabetta as soloist, and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.
Where and when was this recorded?
Live at the Festspielhaus, Baden-Baden, as part of the 2014 Easter Festival, the concert marked Sol Gabetta's debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Is there an audio-only version of the Elgar?
Yes, Sony Classical released the same Baden-Baden live recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto (paired with Martinů's Cello Concerto No. 1) as a separate audio album.
Is this recording still available to buy?
Yes, EuroArts's catalogue number 2059964 remains findable through classical retailers. We don't run an in-house shop, so we link out to Amazon and Discogs below.
What format is this release, and what's actually on it?
A Blu-ray/DVD concert film rather than an audio-only CD, EuroArts catalogue 2059964, Sol Gabetta performing with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle across four different composers' orchestral works, filmed rather than studio-recorded.
