Bloch: Voice In The Wilderness; Schlomo; From Jewish Life; Bruch: Kol Nidrei (2012)

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Bloch: Voice In The Wilderness; Schlomo; From Jewish Life; Bruch: Kol Nidrei (2012)

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A dazzling orchestral disc of music from the Jewish tradition of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Bruch’s Kol Nidrei is one of the most well-loved works in the cello repertoire. The descending opening phrase of the cello line is instantly recognizable: a universal, extraordinarily expressive utterance.

The main part of the disc comprises the works for cello and orchestra by Ernest Bloch, all part of his ‘Jewish cycle’. The most famous is Schelomo, a work inspired by passages from Ecclesiastes, where the cello, playing a deeply lyric and speaking line of prodigious technical difficulty, can be seen as ‘the incarnation of King Solomon’, as Bloch himself wrote. The other large-scale work for cello and orchestra, Voice in the Wilderness, is of a darker hue. Both works reveal a composer whose works should be firmly in the canon of twentieth-century symphonic writing.

The cellist here is Natalie Clein, a celebrated figure in British musical life since winning BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1995 and now a formidable artist, possessed of great musical, technical and intellectual gifts.

Composer: Ernest Bloch, Max Bruch
Performer: Natalie Clein
Conductor: Ilan Volkov
Orchestra/Ensemble: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Reviews: Ernest Bloch’s two tone poems for cello and orchestra, Schelomo and Voice in the Wilderness, make logical disc mates. Stylistically they are quite similar—lusciously scored essays in Romantic exoticism, the latter a little bit more pensive and elegiac than the former. Both are gorgeous, but too short to make a complete program by themselves. Happily, Christopher Palmer arranged the composer’s suite From Jewish Life (originally for cello and piano) for cello, string orchestra, and harp. It sounds wholly idiomatic in this new dress. Toss in Bruch’s ever-popular Kol Nidrei, and the result is both a useful Bloch disc and a collection of music on Jewish themes for cello and orchestra.

The performances here are very fine. Natalie Clein, notwithstanding an unimportant moment or two of questionable intonation, plays both of the big Bloch pieces with notable energy and spontaneity. These are, relatively speaking, swift interpretations, giving the music an unusual amount of strength and directness. Aided by equally vigorous accompaniments from Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony, it’s great to hear performances that refuse to let the music languish excessively. As a result, the gentler From Jewish Life and Kol Nidrei contrast well with the larger tone poems, making a very satisfying complete program—even for continuous listening. The sonics are also very good: well balanced and warmly natural. A fine disc, all around.