Luigi Boccherini - Complete Cello Concertos – Julius Berger, Vladislav Czarnecki, South-West German Chamber Orchestra

 

Release Date: December 12, 1995 Label: EBS Number of discs: 3 Composer: Luigi Boccherini Performer: Berger, Czarnecki, Southwest German Chamber Orch. cd info/ buy

Review:

The discovery of a twelfth Boccherini cello concerto in Naples spurred Julius Berger to record the entire set (if indeed they may be thought of as such). His recording of the complete extant Boccherini concertos is in many ways a landmark. The behind-the-scenes efforts of his colleague Dr Speck (whose accompanying booklet contains a wealth of information in a series of essays and lively program-notes) have imbued these performances with an important new kind of credibility, so necessary in what seems to be the post-period instruments era. He is a fine player, though his tempos are never virtuosic (in some movements decidedly too bound to the pulse) and his emotional range is carefully defined; he was also lucky to be able to record on Boccherini's own Stradivari (albeit not set up in original condition) and we listeners have the opportunity to hear Boccherini's instrument—its angelic top and earthier middle registers in particular (as the bottom strings are almost never heard except in the often superbly idiomatic music). The South-West German Chamber Orchestra under Vladislav Czarnecki accompany Berger with meticulous attention to details of articulation and dynamics. J.A.S.

 

ape, scans