Style aplenty in these richly characterised performances
The Strad Issue: February 2025
Description: Style aplenty in these richly characterised performances
Musicians: Edgar Moreau (cello) David Kadouch (piano) Lucerne Symphony Orchestra/Michael Sanderling
Works: Chopin: Cello Sonata; Nocturne in C minor. Dvořák: Humoresque op.101 no.7; Songs my mother taught me. Rachmaninoff: Melody op.21 no.9; Vocalise. Shostakovich: Jazz Suite no.2: Waltz. Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations
Catalogue number: ERATO 5021732430700
Fourteen years ago Parisian cellist Edgar Moreau’s career was launched when he won second prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition at the tender age of 17. His showcase work on that occasion, Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, heads up his latest disc.
The rich string sound of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, with whom the cellist has collaborated since 2015, is striking from the work’s opening notes. Moreau easily matches this with his flowing, Romantic playing and the full tone he draws from his 1711 David Tecchler cello. The variations are characterised by delicate portamentos and shapely phrasing. The recording is full of colour and vibrancy, but perhaps a little ‘in your face’ for a work of this restraint.
Chopin’s Cello Sonata, with long-time recital partner David Kadouch, is beautifully performed, with eloquent double-stopped passages, excellent ensemble and some affecting rubato. There is an overall smoothness to Moreau’s playing – even the Scherzo is less spiky and more relaxed than most. Again, both instruments are very closely recorded; the reverberance of the piano means that overtones can just be heard in the rests, while Moreau’s breathing is often audible.
Of the shorter pieces, a languid interpretation of Dvořák’s Humoresque and a silky smooth Chopin nocturne in the performers’ own transcription stand out.
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