The Strad Issue: June 2019
Description: Deliciously sprightly playing from soloist and pan-continental orchestra
Musicians: Christoph Croisé (cello) Sherniyaz Mussakhan (violin) Eurasian Soloists Chamber Orchestra
Works: HAYDN Cello Concertos: no.1 in C major, no.2 in D major VIVALDI Concerto in B flat major for violin, cello and strings
Catalogue Number: AVIE AV2402
Youthful joie de vivre and virtuosic intensity abound in this new disc by young Swiss cellist Christophe Croisé with the Eurasian Soloists Chamber Orchestra.
The orchestra, founded in 2015 and hailing from some ten different European and Asian countries, produces a sparkling, vital sound, with the harpsichord well to the fore in the opening ritornellos. Croisé draws a notably wide palette of tones from his 1712 Gofriller cello, from a sudden hooded piano half way through a phrase, taking it in another direction, to the pure, clear double-stopping of the Gendron cadenza in the C major’s Adagio, all captured in warm, realistic sound.
Croisé is sparing with his vibrato, particularly in the slow movements, and favours changing the timbre when a D major Adagio’s opening phrase returns, floating it high on the D string. His virtuosity is everywhere in evidence, but nowhere more than in the exuberantly bustling finale of the C major Concerto, which is taken at a breath-taking pace in this vibrant and immediate recording.
Kazakh violinist Mussakhan directs the select forces of the Swiss-based orchestra and joins Croisé as soloist in Vivaldi’s B flat double concerto, setting the bar ever higher for the cellist to imitate as the two compete in the high cross-string spiccato stakes.
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