Works: Bloch: A Voice in the Wilderness (1936), Schelomo (1916); Caplet: Epiphanie (1923); Ravel: Kaddisch (1914)
Performers: Raphael Wallfisch (cello), BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Benjamin Wallfisch
Label: Nimbus
Background and Critical Reception
Ernest Bloch has a fascinating biography. Born in Geneva, he moved around Europe before settling in the US in 1916, taking up citizenship eight years later. Early studies were with the great violinist-composer Ysaÿe in Belgium, while later in America he taught the maverick George Antheil and Roger Sessions.
A Jewish composer, Bloch often looked to his heritage and culture when writing music, as well as incorporating elements of the Baroque in dramatic works such as two Concerti Grossi for piano and strings. Yet his harmonic language could often be strikingly original, as it was in his Violin Sonatas, Symphony in C# minor and Violin Concerto. His time in America yielded a number of works delighting in his new-found heritage, such as the Sacred Service and the patriotic rhapsody for orchestra America. Despite his new found surroundings Bloch often made strong references to his Jewish roots, with modal scales that link closely to the musical language.
This disc is themed around the Holocaust, and was in fact released by Raphael and Benjamin Wallfisch and Nimbus to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January.
Bloch’s prayerful style of writing for the cello is ideally suited to the instrument, his melodies finding the strongest possible penetration from its tone. The disc opens with his Voice in the Wilderness, a 25 minute piece for cello and orchestra in six linked sections, written during a return to Switzerland in 1936. It is not as well known than Schelomo but is nonetheless a very emotive utterance.
Raphael Wallfisch probes hidden depths when the cello is cast adrift in its opening lament, before finding impressive strength in depth for the solo utterance that becomes the fifth section. The orchestra give him terrific support, and the clarion call of the third section is sharply caught by the recording engineers. The closing meditation is tremendous, with a really big but remarkably clear sound from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales brass. They are superb throughout, and here get a surefooted high register response from Wallfisch. The highlight for me was the terrific third section, marked Moderato, where there is a bright clarion call from the orchestra, with a real strength of feeling, before the cellist enters with assertive chords.
Bloch’s writing is quite modal, as described above, which often gives the music a closer relationship to folk melodies, meaning that sometimes his music is not a million miles from Vaughan Williams as a result. The cello’s ascent in the middle of the final section typifies this.
Schelomo, meanwhile, is a less sectional piece, about the same length as Voice in the Wilderness. Subtitled Rhapsodie hébraïque, it is a setting of melodies Bloch had written down as possible settings for songs of Solomon, from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. Because Bloch felt his grasp of Hebrew was not strong enough to set them directly to music, the cello provided him with a solution – so this work is effectively a group of songs without words.
That would explain the highly charged lyrical content, and cellist and orchestra feel more united here, singing with one voice. There is time for contemplation but often there is a deep seated anger, bristling just beneath the surface but sometimes surging forward through crescendos in the whole orchestra.
Again in this recording the balance between the two forces is just right. Schelomo really comes across as a powerful and anguished work in this performance, and the orchestra play brilliantly, especially the brass. The ending is downbeat – a rarity for Bloch – and completely convincing here, with cellist and orchestra completely immersed in the music they have just made.
The Caplet makes a fascinating coupling, and in his booklet notes Alexander Knapp draws out similarities between the styles of the two composers. In the case of Epiphanie there is a more obviously Eastern influence to the writing and some of the scoring here, from the tentative first forays made by the cello to the bigger, more confident display music that takes place in the centre of the second movement.
This confidence indicates that Caplet was a composer of whom more should be heard. The piece starts suspended in the treble register, with a sweetly voiced violin solo, and a distinctive sighing melody is heard. Yet the most original feature is the inclusion of a softly pulsing bass drum, a featured of Ethiopian music of which Caplet was aware. It gives the piece a completely new and original dimension, and opens the ears towards the composer’s inventive orchestration, which features some inventive colours from the woodwind as well as original cello writing. Again Wallfisch is alive to all of these elements, and plays with a technical surety that gives this piece the best possible advocacy, especially in the virtuosic final section.
The inclusion of an arrangement of Ravel’s Kaddisch is a nice and effective complement, especially given its Jewish origins. Raphael Wallfisch again plays with deep seated commitment, and his style is beautifully mellow. In the moments where the music is more suspended it is possible to detect pointers towards the meditative qualities of pieces such as John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil.
I could hardly imagine a better or more profound memorial for the members of the Wallfisch family killed in the Holocaust, to whom this disc is dedicated. Reading that part of the programme note alone provides a stark reminder in this, the World War I centenary year, that music has played a significant part in helping its performers and listeners come to terms in some way with the atrocities of the time.
Verdict
I found this disc very moving, especially in the context of the World War I anniversary. Raphael Wallfisch plays with an intensity that seems to be even greater than his other concerto recordings, while the orchestral playing and recording is exceptionally vivid. This is music whose melodies and colours can be greatly appreciated with repeated listening, where the music also becomes more directly affecting. It is very highly recommended.
Further Listening
Click on this link to access a Spotify playlist that begins with the four works on this disc in alternative versions, before exploring more Bloch through the Concerto Grosso no.1, the Violin Concerto, the three pieces for violin and orchestra Baal Shem and the rhapsody America.
Next week’s listening - Early and Late: An exploration of folk music from the Middle Ages and today from Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands
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