Miklós Perényi plays Benjamin Britten’s Third Suite op. 87 and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite VI D-Dur BWV 1012, making plain an historical interconnection. Britten wrote his cello suites for Rostropovich, inspired by hearing him playing the Bach suites. Rostropovich hailed all of Britten’s cello suites as masterpieces but singled out the third (written 1971) for special praise: “sheer genius”, in his words. Into the fabric of the thematic material Britten wove fragments of melodies from Russian folk songs, only allowing them to emerge fully in the final movement. On this disc, Bach’s last cello suite follows Britten’s, and Perényi’s Bach dances with elegance and energy. The album concludes with a return to Hungary, and Ligeti’s cello sonata of 1948-1953. Ligeti released the piece for publication only in 1979, so it figures in the chronology (as Paul Griffiths point out in the notes) both before and after the Britten. Meanwhile a significant piece in the contemporary repertoire, it’s a powerful, heartfelt work from a composer who had himself studied the cello. This disc is Perényi’s first ECM solo recital, and follows his brilliant performance, alongside András Schiff, in the 2001/2 recordings of the Complete Music for Piano and Violoncello by Beethoven.
Britten / Bach / Ligeti
Miklós Perényi
Bachs Suiten für Cello solo bilden das Fundament aller Literatur für dieses Instrument. Die größten unter den Interpreten und Komponisten waren sich dessen stets bewusst. So spielte Pablo Casals bei seinem ersten Besuch im Bonner Beethoven-Haus im September 1955 auf dem Instrument aus dem Streichquartett des Komponisten nicht etwa dessen Werke, vielmehr die Suite G-Dur BWV 1007. Eine ähnliche Hommage an Bach, wenn auch auf dem Klavier, machte Johannes Brahms 1874 im Hause seines Freundes Josef Viktor Widmann, als er auf Beethovens Hammerflügel ebenfalls ein Werk von Bach und nicht eines von Beethoven spielte. Für sein Solo-Recital hat der ungarische Cellist Miklós Perényi, ein Schüler Pablo Casals, nun die sechste Suite gewählt, die eigentlich für ein fünfsaitiges Instrument mit einer zusätzlichen Diskant-Saite geschrieben wurde, mit moderner Technik aber auch von einem viersaitigen Cello ausgeführt werden kann. Und er stellt dem Werk Benjamin Brittens dritte Suite op.87 gegenüber, die sich dezidiert in die Tradition von Bachs Werken stellt und damit demonstriert, wie viele kompositorische Möglichkeiten die Tonalität nach wie vor bereithält, wobei er mit modernen Spieltechniken das musikalische Material gewissermaßen vor dem Hörer ausbreitet, bevor es am Ende des Werkes in seiner melodischen Urgestalt erscheint. Ligetis Cello-Sonate aus den Jahren 1948 und 1953 bildet da insofern eine bemerkenswerte Brücke zu Bach, als sie im sozialistischen Ungarn wegen ihres zweiten Satzes, den der Bannstrahl des Formalismus traf, nicht aufgeführt werden durfte. Was aber ist die autarke musikalische Form Ligetis anderes als die souveräne musikalische Form Johann Sebastian Bachs, dem man noch zu Lebzeiten seine „eigentlichen Noten“ vorwarf, um sie gegenüber dem neuen galanten Stil der Zeit alt erscheinen zu lassen? „Eigentliche Noten“ und „Formalismus“: Der Vorwurf fiel auf die Kritiker zurück, die längst vergessen sind, während das Werk Bachs wie Ligetis die musikalischen Moden überdauert.
- Third Suite, op. 87
- 1Introduzione. Lento02:15
- 2Marcia. Allegro01:34
- 3Canto. Con moto01:08
- 4Barcarola. Lento01:12
- 5Dialogo. Allegretto01:09
- 6Fuga. Andante espressivo02:32
- 7Recitativo. Fantastico01:09
- 8Moto perpetuo. Presto00:51
- 9Passacaglia. Lento solenne08:33
- Suite VI in D Major BWV 1012
- 10Prélude05:31
- 11Allemande06:34
- 12Courante03:50
- 13Sarabande05:42
- 14Gavotte I - II04:32
- 15Gigue03:46
- Sonata
- 16Dialogo. Adagio, rubato, cantabile03:59
- 17Capriccio. Presto con slancio03:35
This disc of solo cello music, with a spirited account of Bach´s D major Suite VI, BWV1012 at the centre, offers a chance to hear the Hungarian cellist Miklós Perényi at his virtuosic best. A one-time pupil of Pablo Casals, Perényi has a warm, big-boned, springy tone and brings expressive variety to Britten´s Suite No 3 Op 87, written in a matter of days for his friend Rostropovich. Its nine short movements unfold as if from one musical seed, flowering in the final Passacaglia, which is almost as long as the total of the preceding sections. Ligeti´s folk-inspired sonata, dating from the dark days of Hungary and not approved for broadcast by the Soviet authorities, makes an atmospheric conclusion.
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer
After inspired performance alongside András Schiff on the prize-winning recording of Beethoven’s Complete Music for Piano and Violoncello (Cannes Classical Award, Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik), and earlier important contributions to György Kurtág’s Music für Streichinstrumente, here is Miklós Perényi’s first ECM solo recital recording. The album was recorded in the exceptional acoustic of the Auditorio Radiotelevisione svizzera, Lugano, highly responsive to the Hungarian cellist’s sound and dynamic range. As Paul Griffiths writes, “Through Perényi’s artistry we come to understand how the sound of the cello – such a rich sound here, as natural as wood, with the grain and the strength of wood – cannot be separated from the composition being realized, nor the composition from its instrument. There is no music without sound, and there is no sound without music. Perényi’s sound speaks to us warmly and sagely and also humorously of the cello, of its sonorous possibilities, of its exceptionalness in western music as a solo instrument that addresses us from a low register, of its whole history and culture. We cannot forget for a moment that what we are hearing is cello sound, and the fine detail of this recording may even convince us at times that we are hearing the action of the cello being played. Yet in no way does this diminish our closeness to the music. On the contrary, the more we hear the sound, the more we hear the music.”
In juxtaposing, Benjamin Britten’s Third Suite op. 87 and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite VI D-Major BWV 1012, Perenyi illuminates an historical interconnection. Britten wrote his cello suites for Rostropovich, inspired by hearing him playing the Bach suites. Rostropovich had hailed each of Britten’s cello suites as masterpieces but singled out the third (written 1971) for special praise: “sheer genius”, in his words. Into the fabric of the thematic material Britten wove fragments of melodies from Russian folk songs, only allowing them to emerge fully in the final movement. On this disc, Bach’s last cello suite follows Britten’s, and Perényi’s Bach dances with elegance and energy.
The album concludes with a return to Hungary, and Ligeti’s Cello Sonata of 1948-1953. Ligeti released the piece for publication only in 1979, so it figures in the chronology (as the liner notes point out) both before and after the Britten. Meanwhile a significant piece in the contemporary repertoire, it’s a powerful, heartfelt work from a composer who had himself studied the cello.
“Performer, teacher, composer: all three roles feature in the musical life of Miklós Perényi, one of Hungary’s greatest artists. A figure of true artistic stature.”
- The Strad
“Perényi is a consummate cellist who never constrains his limpidly beautiful tone, but has the most eloquent of ‘speaking’ bows and a vast range of articulations at his disposal.”
- BBC Music Magazine
Miklós Perényi’s distinctive and subtly nuanced sound is allied to extraordinary musicality, in repertoire ranging from the 17th century to the present.
Born in Hungary, Miklós Perényi began cello lessons at the age of five with Miklós Zsámboki, a student of David Popper. At nine, he gave his first concert in Budapest and went on to study between 1960 and 1964 with Enrico Mainardi in Rome and, in Budapest, with Ede Banda. In 1963 he was a prize-winner at the International Pablo Casals Cello Competition in Budapest. Casals invited him to his master classes in Puerto Rico in 1965 and 1966, and he went on to become a frequent visitor to the Marlboro Festival.
Since 1974 he has taught at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and has held a professorship there since 1980. He was honoured with the Kossuth-Prize in 1980 and the Bartók-Pásztory-Prize in 1987. Beyond performing and teaching, Perényi also devotes his energies to composition of works for solo cello and for instrumental ensembles of various sizes.
He has worked closely with András Schiff for more than 20 years. Recently, the duo played at Cologne’s Philharmonie, the Schwetzingen Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall and the 92nd Street in New York. Another frequent chamber music partners include pianist Dénes Várjon (who also has a solo recital disc, “Precipitando”, released by ECM New Series).
In juxtaposing, Benjamin Britten’s Third Suite op. 87 and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite VI D-Major BWV 1012, Perenyi illuminates an historical interconnection. Britten wrote his cello suites for Rostropovich, inspired by hearing him playing the Bach suites. Rostropovich had hailed each of Britten’s cello suites as masterpieces but singled out the third (written 1971) for special praise: “sheer genius”, in his words. Into the fabric of the thematic material Britten wove fragments of melodies from Russian folk songs, only allowing them to emerge fully in the final movement. On this disc, Bach’s last cello suite follows Britten’s, and Perényi’s Bach dances with elegance and energy.
The album concludes with a return to Hungary, and Ligeti’s Cello Sonata of 1948-1953. Ligeti released the piece for publication only in 1979, so it figures in the chronology (as the liner notes point out) both before and after the Britten. Meanwhile a significant piece in the contemporary repertoire, it’s a powerful, heartfelt work from a composer who had himself studied the cello.
“Performer, teacher, composer: all three roles feature in the musical life of Miklós Perényi, one of Hungary’s greatest artists. A figure of true artistic stature.”
- The Strad
“Perényi is a consummate cellist who never constrains his limpidly beautiful tone, but has the most eloquent of ‘speaking’ bows and a vast range of articulations at his disposal.”
- BBC Music Magazine
Miklós Perényi’s distinctive and subtly nuanced sound is allied to extraordinary musicality, in repertoire ranging from the 17th century to the present.
Born in Hungary, Miklós Perényi began cello lessons at the age of five with Miklós Zsámboki, a student of David Popper. At nine, he gave his first concert in Budapest and went on to study between 1960 and 1964 with Enrico Mainardi in Rome and, in Budapest, with Ede Banda. In 1963 he was a prize-winner at the International Pablo Casals Cello Competition in Budapest. Casals invited him to his master classes in Puerto Rico in 1965 and 1966, and he went on to become a frequent visitor to the Marlboro Festival.
Since 1974 he has taught at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and has held a professorship there since 1980. He was honoured with the Kossuth-Prize in 1980 and the Bartók-Pásztory-Prize in 1987. Beyond performing and teaching, Perényi also devotes his energies to composition of works for solo cello and for instrumental ensembles of various sizes.
He has worked closely with András Schiff for more than 20 years. Recently, the duo played at Cologne’s Philharmonie, the Schwetzingen Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall and the 92nd Street in New York. Another frequent chamber music partners include pianist Dénes Várjon (who also has a solo recital disc, “Precipitando”, released by ECM New Series).
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