Reviews | OTHER MEDIA

 
The Music Treasury celebrates Christine Walevska, master cellist
“The Cello Has Its Goddess: Walevska. Walevska is a Venus who plays the cello divinely. Music takes possession of her entirely. Her sound is simply precious. It has refinement, subtleties, filigrees, which boggle the mind."  –Jornal do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro
 
"It is rare for a critic to feel the icy fingers of an instrumentalist’s playing on his spine, but I did when listening to this recording of the Schumann and Shelomo by Christine Walevska. The effect of being moved deeply is in a way an icy experience…There is that masterful technique of hers that leaves nothing to be desired; there is that marvelous bow arm; there is that pure, warm, melting tone that can bite and cut when needed. There is a creamy caressing in here tone and yet there is an unforced inner intensity that few instrumentalists can muster. The romantic Schumann Concerto engages her extraordinary elegance of projection, besides her virtuosity. And her playing of the elegiac parts is so full of heart and dignity that you get the shivers listening to them."  –Boris Nelson, president of American Critics Association
 
“Fascinating Playing by Christine Walevska. Her tone was extraordinarily beautiful, engrossing from start to finish. Her playing was captivating. Visually her playing is of the utmost simplicity, the trademark of her performance."   –Twentsche Courant, The Hague
 
Christine Walevska has been center stage in the cello world ever since her first international concert appearances at the age of eighteen. Those early triumphs inspired the sort of accolades normally reserved for star performers of mature years. Typical of the tributes was the comment by the Los Angeles music critic Patterson Greene: "She parallels on the cello the singular persuasiveness of Fritz Kreisler on the violin."
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Her first teacher was her father, a dealer in rare violins and cellos.  It was he who set her on the path at the early age of 13 to be the first private student with the famous Gregor Piatigorsky.
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That was only the beginning. When she was 16 she won a French government scholarship to study with the great Maurice Marechal at the Paris Conservatoire. Two years later she became the first American ever to win first prize in cello and in chamber music.
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Her rise was meteoric, beginning her career in Germany where in her second season she played 45 concerts in that country alone. Following a series of international triumphs, including heralded appearances at Buenos Aires' famed Theatro Colon, where she performed a Recital, the Brahms double concerto with Henryk Szeryng and the Dvorak cello concerto in the same week to rave notices, there soon followed a round of appearances that sounded like a roll-call of the great European cities.

Over four decades of concertizing across the globe she has played with orchestras throughout Germany, the United States, France, in every corner of Spain, Poland, Mexico, Central and South America,(where she has brought music to every big city or small, wherever there is a concert hall with an orchestra or piano to accompany her) in Holland with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Hague, in the Concertgebouw, the Stockholm Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, Vienna, Italy, Prague, Cuba, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dresdener Philharmonic, concerts in Japan, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.
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In 2015 the Museum of Chimei in Taiwan, with a generous grant, sponsored her latest recording recorded in Montreal. The five CD boxed set titled " The Legendary Recordings of Christine Walevska," which now exist on the Decca label, has all seventeen cello concertos, which were originally produced by Philips.
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Her playing was greatly admired by Jascha Heifetz and Arthur Grumiaux.
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Arthur Rubinstein said of her. "... Christine Walevska has the most sensuous tone I have ever heard on the cello... She is the only cellist, who takes my breath away..."
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Claudio Arrau, yet another from the ranks of great pianists, said: "... Christine Walevska is the world's greatest cellist."
 
Many composers have dedicated works to her, including Aram Khachaturian, Ferde Grofe (title: "Christine"), Jose Bragato and Ennio Bolognini, who wanted her to be the only cellist to continue to play his compositions.
 
The violinist, Josef Suk, Dvorak's great grandson, wrote to her and stated that her interpretation of Dvorak's cello concerto was the greatest he had ever heard. He invited her to play it at the Prague Spring Festival and she since played several times with the Suk Chamber Orchestra at the "Jewels of the Prague Castle."
 
The recording she made with the London Philharmonic of the Dvorak concerto was celebrated in a book by Prof. Fabio Uccelli: "ll commiato di Anton Dvorak," (Dvorak's Farewell), published in Florence. Entirely devoted to analyzing this work in depth. The book analyzes phrase by phrase her interpretation with that of Rostropovitch. Because of this book, during the Dvorak anniversary year, 2004, she had a wave of invitations to play the concerto everywhere from Beijing to Brazil. She played the concerto three times with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra. The book is dedicated to Christine Walevska as: "the world's greatest interpreter of Dvorak's cello concerto.

This book with multimedia excerpts can be read and heard at: https://musicaeconoscenza.it/newp/index.php/english-books/anton-dvoraks-farewell/ .

(Gary Lemco, Ph.D., Host of The Music Treasury)

PROGRAM (derived from the Rhine Classics set: “Christine Walevska: The Beauty and the Bow”)
 
BOLOGNINI: Serenata del Echo; Serenata del Gaucho (6:50)
COUPERIN: 5 Pieces en Concert (11:00)
NIN: Chants d’Espagne (8:00)
HAYDN: Divertimento in D Major (8:20)
SCHUMAN: A Song of Orpheus w/H. Temkianka, cond. (20:05)
CHOPIN: Introduction and Polonaise brillante, Op. 3 (9:30)
BOLOGNINI: Cello’s Prayer (5:03)
WEBER: Adagio and Rondo in F Major (5:00)
BACH: Solo Cello Suite No. 6 in G Major: Prelude (5:05)
HINDEMITH: Cello Concerto No. 3 w/D. Dixon, cond. (27:00) 

26 January 2021 | Christoph Schlüren YouTube channel | VIDEO | Reviewing Franco Gulli Anthology Rhine Classics (RH-005 | incl. Ghedini, Celibidache, Schoeck, Busoni)   Christoph Schlüren stellt die unter Umgehung der restriktiven EU-Copyrights in Taiwan hergestellte und von Rhine Classics direkt beziehbare 11-CD-Box 'Franco Gulli ReDiscovered' vor, auf welcher dieser überragende italienische Geiger des 20. Jahrhunderts u.a. mit Konzerten von Beethoven (Op. 61 und Tripelkonzert), Bach, Mozart, Paganini (Nr. 1, 2, und 5), Bartók (Nr. 2), Busoni, Schoeck, Prokofiev (Nr. 1), Lalo (Symphonie espagnole) sowie dem großen italienischen Meister Giorgio Federico Ghedini (1892-1965; Divertimento in Re maggiore und Contrappunti per tre archi e orchestra [mit seinen Triofreunden Bruno Giuranna und Giacinto Caramia]) zu hören ist. Aufnahmen von einsamer Klasse, wie auch die Kammermusik, die er überwiegend mit seiner Frau, der Pianistin Enrica Cavallo aufgenommen hat: beide Busoni-Sonaten, Ned Rorem, Debussy Sonate, Chausson (Concert und Poème), Bloch, Ravel, Vieuxtemps, Mozart, Schubert, Respighi (Sonate) und Bachs Chaconne. An Dirigenten wirken neben Sergiu Celibidache Ernest Bour, Ferdinand Leitner, Lovro von Matacic, Mario Rossi, Nino Sanzogno, Aldo Ceccato, Massimo Pradella etc. mit. Einen besonderen Schwerpunkt bildet dabei Ghedini, ein Komponist, den jeder kennen sollte und noch kaum jemand kennt. Die vom italienischen Geigerpapst Emilio Pessina zusammengestellte, klanglich phänomenal aufbereitete und produzierte Box ist von unbezahlbarer Qualität, und dies zu einem erstaunlich freundlichen Preis. Nicht nur für Geiger eine unbedingte Empfehlung. [DE]

Christoph Schlüren presents the 11-CD box 'Franco Gulli ReDiscovered', produced in Taiwan and directly available from Rhine Classics, on which this outstanding Italian violinist of the 20th century, among others with concerts by Beethoven (Op. 61 and Triple Concerto), Bach, Mozart, Paganini (No. 1, 2, and 5), Bartók (No. 2), Busoni, Schoeck, Prokofiev (No. 1), Lalo (Symphonie espagnole ) as well as the great Italian master Giorgio Federico Ghedini (1892-1965; Divertimento in Re maggiore and Contrappunti per tre archi e orchestra - with his trio friends Bruno Giuranna and Giacinto Caramia-). Recordings of a lonely class, as well as the chamber music, which he recorded mainly with his wife, the pianist Enrica Cavallo: both Busoni sonatas, Ned Rorem, Debussy sonatas, Chausson (Concert and Poème), Bloch, Ravel, Vieuxtemps, Mozart, Schubert, Respighi (Sonata) and Bach's Chaconne. In addition to Sergiu Celibidache, Ernest Bour, Ferdinand Leitner, Lovro von Matacic, Mario Rossi, Nino Sanzogno, Aldo Ceccato, Massimo Pradella etc. also work on conductors. A special focus is Ghedini, a composer everyone should know and hardly anyone knows. The box, put together and produced by the Italian "violin-expert" Emilio Pessina, with a phenomenal sound, is of priceless quality, and at an amazingly affordable price. An absolute recommendation not only for violinists. [EN]