[USED:Cond.A] Cello Concerto / 1: Fournier, Wallenstein / Bpo +schelomo, Kol Nidrei

One of the most important cellists of the generation after Pablo Casals, Pierre Fournier was also very much a French musician, championing the music of his nation, offering authentic and informed performances of it, and lending it the typically Gallic elegance of his tone. This generously filled reissue offers two French romantic concertos which are very often coupled on record--the Lalo and the first Saint-Saens--along with two concertante works on Hebrew themes.
The French concertos are minor key works that allude to operatic drama and offer plenty of opportunities for lyrical songfulness. In the right hands--which Fournier's most certainly are--they can generate a fair amount of excitement in addition to displaying an attractive surface. These 1960 recordings are vivid with an authentically French accompaniment backing Fournier's suave performances.
Bruch's 'Kol Nidrei' is a lovely, melancholy utterance in which Fournier's lustrous tone is at its most exposed, while Bloch's 'Schelomo,' the lone 20th-century work here, is a portrayal of King Solomon in which the soloist is given to dramatic incantation. Fournier is eloquent in this 1966 recording, and the Berlin Philharmonic savors the quasi-Oriental raptures of the lush, late Romantic score.
REVIES:
New York Times (3/12/00, p.24) - "This reissue...could not be more welcome....Fournier brings more than authority to these tuneful pieces. His lambent tone invests the music with that rarest of virtues, heart....this is music to be savored..."