• Home
• Basic Repertoire
• Composers
• Books and Scores
• Reviews and Articles
• Buying Guide
• Music Links 

Related Links

Recommended Links

Site News

What's New for
Winter 2018/2019?

Site Search

Follow us on
   

Affiliates

---

CD Review

The Original Jacket Collection

Pablo Casals

• Johann Sebastian Bach:
• Sonata for Viola da Gamba in G Major, BWV 1027 ¹
• Sonata for Viola da Gamba in D Major, BWV 1028 ¹
• Sonata for Viola da Gamba in G minor, BWV 1029 ¹
• Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue, BWV ²
• Italian Concerto in F Major, BWV 971 ²
• Aria from Pastorale in F Major, BWV 590 ¹⁰
• Recitative from Organ Concerto #3, BWV 594 ³
• Ludwig van Beethoven:
• Cello Sonata #1 in F Major, Op. 5 #1 ²
• Cello Sonata #2 in G minor, Op. 5 #2 ²
• Cello Sonata #3 in A Major, Op. 69 ²
• Cello Sonata #4 in C Major, Op. 102 #1 ²
• Cello Sonata #5 in D Major, Op. 102 #2 ²
• Variations on "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" from "Die Zauberflöte", Op. 66 ²
• Variations on "Bei Männern" from "Die Zauberflöte", WoO. 4 ²
• Piano Trio #7 "Archduke" in B Flat Major, Op. 97 ^3,4
• Franz Schubert: Piano Trio #1 in B Flat Major, Op. 99 (D. 898) ^3,4
• Johannes Brahms: Piano Trio #1 in, Op. 8 ^5,6
• Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 49 ^7,8
• François Couperin: Pièces en concert
• Robert Schumann:
• Adagio & Allegro in A Flat Major, Op. 70 ⁷
• Concerto for Cello in A minor, Op. 129 ⁹
• Franz Joseph Haydn: Piano Sonata in D Major, Hob XVI: 19 (adagio) ³
• Manuel de Falla: Nana from Populare Españolé Suite
• Traditional (arr. by Casals):
• El cant dels ocells
• Sant Martí del Canigó

Pablo Casals, cello
¹ Paul Baumgartner, piano
² Rudolf Serkin, piano
³ Eugene Istomin, piano
⁴ Alexander Schneider, violin
⁵ Myra Hess, piano
⁶ Isaac Stern, violin
⁷ Mieczyslaw Horzowski, piano
⁸ Alexander Schneider, violin
⁹ Prades Festival Orchestra
¹⁰ Perpignan Festival Orchestra
Sony 88697-65690-2 10CDs

Sony has issued several boxed sets in its Original Jacket Collection series. The idea is nice. Each is a boxed set of reissues of well-known recordings by prominent artists, with the individual discs are packaged in facsimiles of the original vinyl sleeves, including the original liner notes (although many purchasers will find that, even with their bifocals on, they are reaching for their magnifying glass). In addition to this set I greatly enjoyed the set of Bruno Walter conducting Mahler, Wagner, and Bruckner.

It is not clear whether there has been any significant remastering in this collection. The rather sketchy leaflet identifies Philip Nedel as the remaster, but that is all the information we are given. This is particularly puzzling, since Sony have already re-released (re-re-released?) much of the material in this set in their Pablo Casals edition. On the face of it, this boxed set may seem a better bargain than buying individual reissues in the Pablo Casals edition – at the price I paid the set came out at less than $3 per disc. On the other hand, though, the discs in the Pablo Casals edition (itself a budget-priced series) are typically twice as long as the ones in this set, where each LP is given its own CD. For what it's worth, I sampled across the two releases and could not detect any meaningful difference in sound quality (although I lay no claim to golden ears).

In any event, the music-making is wonderful and comes primarily from the Prades and Perpignan festivals in the 1950s (studio rather than live performances). The first two discs feature Bach's three sonatas for Harpsichord and Viola da Gamba (BVW 1027-29), played with Paul Baumgartner at the piano. All 3 sonatas are highly expressive and Casals brings to them the same intensity that he brings to the better known Suites. The second disc is filled out with Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue and the F major Italian Concerto, both played by Rudolf Serkin – good performances both, but probably not rising to the top of a very crowded market.

For me the highlight of the collection is the complete cycle of Beethoven cello sonatas with Rudolf Serkin at the piano – Casals' second studio recording of the complete cycle (the first was made in the 1930s with Otto Schulhof and Mieczyslaw Horzowski). Particular highlights are the Adagio in the fifth Sonata (Op. 102 #2) and the extraordinarily long first movement (21 minutes!) from the early second sonata (Op. 5 #2). The effortless mastery of Casals and Serkin is particularly evidenced in the movements that have transitions from Adagio introductions – the Allegro emerges organically from the slow introduction, without a hint of awkwardness or discontinuity.

The set features three piano trios – Beethoven's Archduke (Op. 97), the Schubert B Flat Major Trio (D898), and Brahms's Trio #1 (Op. 8). The first two have Eugene Istomin at the piano and the violin of Alexander Schneider. Isaac Stern is the violinist and Myra Hess the pianist for the Brahms. The Beethoven and Schubert recordings are justly celebrated. The Brahms performance is perhaps less well known, but beautifully played. Casals is a superlative chamber musician and his collaborators here are of the highest quality.

The famous White House concert stands out in this collection because of its location (obviously!), but also its date (1961, whereas most of the other performances date back from the early 1950s. Here Casals is joined by long-time partners Schneider and Horzowski in Mendelssohn's D minor Piano Trio (Op. 49) and pieces by Couperin and Schumann (as well as one of two recordings in this collection of Casals' trademark Song of the Birds). On a musical level, however, this disc stands with the others in displaying the organic unity of Casals' chamber music.

The real outlier to me is the 1953 recording of Schumann's Cello Concerto – a wonderful recording of a wonderful piece, but it breaks the flow of a collection focused on the delicacy of Casals chamber musicianship and his ability to meld a whole that is so much greater than the sum of its parts. The only connection that I can see with the other nine discs is that it was recorded at Prades with the Prades Festival Orchestra.

Nonetheless, the fact that the only negative thing I can find to say about this collection is that it includes a great recording of Schumann's Cello Concerto should speak volumes. This is a wonderful collection and the sound quality is good enough for many of the performances to be signature recordings that can stand against any.

Copyright © 2012, José Luis Bermúdez