GALA CONCERT. Thursday, 2 November, 2017. At City Hall, Cape Town. CPO conducted by Bernhard Gueller, soloist Zuill Bailey; Von Reznicek: Donna Diana Overture; Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No 1 in A minor, Op 33; Massenet: Meditation from Thaïs; Sibelius: Symphony No 2 in D, Op 43.
DEON IRISH reviews
In what has by now become tradition, the Friends of Orchestral Music present an annual fundraising concert as part of their mission to support and further the cause of both this particular orchestra, and live orchestral music as a musical medium, in Cape Town. As always, it proved to be a joyous occasion with a distinguished soloist playing a slightly unusual programme, and the orchestra’s popular principal guest conductor on the podium.
In my other musical capacity, I was playing the organ at St Michael’s for the All Souls Day requiem that same evening, so came hurtling through to the City Hall, but too late to experience the overture.
I did, however, skid into my seat just as cellist Zuill Bailey made his way onto the platform for the featured concerto: Saint-Saëns’ relatively early (he lived a very long life) first concerto for the instrument.
Tovey – in one of his most adroit comments – describes this concerto in these words: “The worldly wisdom of Saint-Saëns is at its best and kindliest in this opusculum, which is pure and brilliant without putting on chastity as a garment, and without calling attention to its jewellery at a banquet of poor relations.”
Tonal purity, a soaring quality
Bailey certainly gave us tonal purity – indeed, at times, of so searing a quality as to quite beguile. This was perhaps most apparent in the winsome quasi-scherzo, a movement in which the composer seems determined to at once demonstrate the original structures of a minuet and to transform such into a sort of Parisian confection that might grace a Tchaikovsky ballet. Here Bailey’s cello sang out soulfully against the delicate pizzicato chords of the gossamer accompaniment, alternating charm, yearning and chains of trills that evoked a frisson of enthusiasm.
Jewels there were aplenty
Not that it required a pizzicato backing for Bailey’s 1693 Gofriller to be heard to full and glorious effect even in the bigger passages of the outer sections (although it must be conceded that Saint-Saëns’ orchestration of this work is masterly in its skillful balancing of orchestra and soloist, and that Gueller did it full justice.)
Jewels there were aplenty – although Bailey’s sheer musical good taste ensured that they were of an understated value, and never showily meretricious. Octave passages were smoothly precise, the soaring heights of the finale poignant with a delicately applied vibrato; the whole infused with a musical conviction that was alluring.
The concerto is short and so the soloist programmed a second treat – an arrangement for cello of the celebrated “Meditation” from Massenet’s 1894 opera, “Thaïs”. It proved a attractive companion piece and certainly afforded the lovely instrument an opportunity to indulge in unrestrained song.
The concert concluded with a fine and dramatic reading of the Sibelius symphony, although I did find the trumpet tone somewhat stridently overbearing in the finale.
WS
