English Cello Works
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op 85 (1919)
John Ireland (1879-1962)
Cello Sonata in G minor (1923)
Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Cello Sonata in D minor, H125 (1913-1917)
Sir Edward Elgar
Salut d’amour, Op 12 (1888)
Andreas Brantelid (cello), Bengt Forsberg (piano), Royal Danish Orchestra/Thomas Søndergård
rec. live, 24-25 August 2021, The Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark; 2024, The Royal Danish Academy of Music (Studiesalen), Frederiksberg, Denmark
Naxos 8.573690 [74]

This is not the first recording made by the cellist, Andreas Brantelid, who was born in 1987 to Swedish/Danish parents; however, this is the first time, so far as I can recall, that I’ve encountered his playing. This most interesting programme enables us to hear him both as a concerto soloist and in chamber music.

I liked Brantelid’s live performance of the Elgar concerto. Those used to – or preferring – a heart-on-sleeve approach may be inclined to look elsewhere but I found his way with the music was refreshing. He doesn’t underplay the emotional aspect of the first movement but the focus seems to be on gentle melancholy. The quicksilver scherzo is full of energy and momentum. Rightly, the Adagio is at the heart of his performance. Here, I was very taken with the withdrawn, melancholy beauty of the performance. Brantelid plays with an ideal cantabile tone and the orchestra’s support is properly hushed. In the cadenza at the start of the finale, Brantelid is not too overt – I rather like that. The movement itself, when it gets underway, has a positive, almost genial tone to it, which offers good contrast to the melancholy we’ve experienced in the first and third movements. That said, from 6:26 the mood becomes much more pensive as the third movement is recalled; Brantelid is excellent hereabouts and I especially liked his veiled tone around 9:22.  This is a performance of the concerto which is as thoughtful as it is excellent. Be warned, though; the Danish audience erupts into a highly enthusiastic ovation without waiting for the last chord to die away.

Rather than coupling the Elgar with another concerto, Andreas Brantelid offers studio performances of two important English cello sonatas, for which he’s joined by pianist Bengt Forsberg.

Only recently, I enjoyed a fine performance of the G minor sonata by John Ireland (review) so I was delighted to get a second opportunity to evaluate a recording. In the first of the three movements, I very much enjoyed the singing nature of Brantelid’s playing. Equally pleasing was the evident rapport between him and Forsberg; theirs is a fine and effective partnership. There’s a good deal of passionate writing for the cello in this movement; Brantelid is excellent in these passages but he’s no less responsive in the lyrical episodes. The central movement is a lovely, lyrical creation. The music is beautifully unfolded by these artists, who play with great expression. The finale follows without a break; in this performance, the movement really bursts forth from the tranquillity of the preceding movement. In this finale we experience excellent energy and passion, yet all of this is achieved without Brantelid ever compromising the singing nature of his playing. In his notes Paul Conway says of Ireland’s sonata that the work is “[c]losely argued and combining muscularity with disquiet”. I agree, and this excellent performance completely supports Conway’s judgement. 

The choice of Frank Bridge’s D minor Cello Sonata is a very interesting one. It took Bridge the best part of four years to complete this work (1913-17) and, as Paul Conway observes, it is probable that this “protracted gestation contributed to its disparate musical styles, with a comparatively conventional sonata-form first movement succeeded by a more harmonically ambiguous and complex second”. I’m sure it’s no coincidence, either, that the work was begun in peacetime and finished when the First World War was at its height – and showed no sign of ending. I very much admired this performance by Brantelid and Forsberg. At the start of the first movement, they impart an excellent flow to the music but it’s not long before Bridge’s writing takes on, in Conway’s words, an “impassioned and impulsively romantic” vein. The performers handle this very convincingly, just as they do the slower, pensive episodes, which are akin to oases in the otherwise passionate musical landscape. The second movement is, as Paul Conway suggests, much more harmonically – and, I’d argue, emotionally – ambiguous. Brantelid and Forsberg do full justice to the searching, melancholy nature of the music; their restrained eloquence is most effective. I greatly admired the profound expressiveness in the bars leading up to the central scherzo; that section explodes out of the blocks at 5:13. In this scherzo there’s considerable virtuosity in both the music itself and in the performance. However, the strength of this account of Bridge’s finale really comes to the fore when the scherzo has passed (6:36) and the slow music returns. From here on, the performance has increasing passion and intensity until Brantelid and Forsberg bring the work to an imposing, ardent conclusion. This is a very fine performance indeed of the Bridge sonata.

After the intensity of the Bridge, it’s a sensible gesture to bring us down to earth with a charming little encore in the shape of Elgar’s Salut d’amour.

I enjoyed this disc very much indeed. The music has been chosen with discernment. All the performances are excellent. Andreas Brantelid impresses not only with his technical virtuosity but, just as much, with the intelligence and empathy of his interpretations. In the concerto he receives fine support from The Royal Danish Orchestra and Thomas Søndergård, while in the chamber works Bengt Forsberg is an ideal partner.

The recorded sound is very good throughout the programme. Brantelid is properly to the fore in the concerto, but not in such a way that the cello dominates to an extent which compromises the orchestral contribution. In the chamber works, the two performers are very successfully balanced. Paul Conway’s notes are excellent. My only slight caveat is that there isn’t much of a gap between the various works; even just a few more seconds between each work would have been very welcome.

John Quinn

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