Schumann: Cello Concerto, Symphony No. 4 Christophe Coin, cello; Orchestre des Champs Elysees, Philippe Herreweghe, conductor (Harmonia Mundi France)
From the opening bars of this original-instruments recording, it’s clear Christophe Coin’s reading of Schumann’s Cello Concerto will be precise, refined and sensitive. This is due not only to a general approach on conductor Philippe Herreweghe’s part that favors elegance and articulation over passion and power; it owes just as much to the innate delicacy of Coin’s cello playing, a delicacy that brings with it both pluses and minuses.
There are moments when the intimacy and inwardness so assiduously courted by Coin and Herreweghe cast a gentle, revealing new light on the concerto, as in the score’s accompanied monologues. On the other hand, there is a fragility to this interpretation that makes it pale beside the more passionate accounts of such cellists as Yo-Yo Ma and Janos Starker.
More full-blooded, thus more persuasive, is Herreweghe’s account of the composer’s Fourth Symphony. Here, the relative spareness of his period approach is very welcome, as it renders a clarity and transparency to a symphony notorious for its muddy scoring. Here textures and timbres emerge whistle-clean, rhythms are crisply sprung and there is no lack of brio. The French orchestra plays as if Schumann is central to its musical tradition.
