CD REVIEW
– GAUTIER
CAPUÇON
EMOTIONS
Warner Classics
9029521413 (77’)
'
This is an album
that had escaped my notice until
now. Unless you are into
downloads or still have a local
record shop, it may be too late
for Christmas listening but will
provide ear balm for continuing
troubled times in the New Year,
albeit hopefully less troubled
than when the disc was released
in early November. In Britain, at
least, the availability of a
vaccine means the candle of hope
is now burning brighter.
Multiple award
winner, Gautier Capuçon (born
1981) – the youngest brother
of the violinist Renaud Capuçon
– started learning the cello
at four years of age and today is
rated as one of the world's best
players.
It has been an
emotional year and this 18-track
eclectic collection is
contemplative in its choice. It
ranges through popular classics
– like Albinoni's Adagio,
Debussy's Clair de Lune,
Dvorák's Song to the Moon,
Elgar's Nimrod and
Fauré's Pavane –
to works by Einaudi, Nyman and
Richter. And there has to be
Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah,
as it suits the cello so well.
The Frenchman,
playing a 1701 Matteo Gofriller
instrument, is soloist on another
four tracks including Monti's Czardas
and a jolly final track in Scott
Joplin's The Entertainer.
He is accompanied by Jérôme
Ducros, who is a fine pianist
also featured on other tracks
with the orchestra, as well as
having orchestrated a majority of
the works. These include
Marguerite Monnot's lovely Hymne
à l’amour, one of her
many songs written for Édith
Piaf, that opens the album.
On April 19th
2019, Capuçon made a moving
tribute on the pavement across
the street from the famous Notre
Dame de Paris cathedral as
firemen attempted to subdue the
disastrous fire that nearly
destroyed the building. Like many
French people he was deeply
affected by what had happened, so
for this album asked Maîtrise de
Notre Dame de Paris (a
pre-college music school choir)
to join him and the orchestra in
performing Schubert's Ave
Maria.
The Orchestre de
Chambre de Paris, conducted by
Adrien Purrachon, gives support
throughout the making of the disc
that Capuçon describes as
"tremendous".
'Emotions'
is an album to savour. For its
concept, content, performance and
playing-time it is one of my
albums of the year – along
with Bocelli, Desplat, The
Kanneh-Masons, Mantovani &
Calleja, Pourcel, Iain
Sutherland, Williams, Willis and
Wilson (all reviewed here) –
and at the time of writing is
available online for less than a
tenner.
© Peter
Burt 2020
|
