Anne Gastinel / Pablo Márquez IBÉRICA

This engaging new release leaves no doubt that the sometimes cheerful, sometimes melancholy song of the cello can pull off a Spanish accent just as well as that of the classical guitar. With “Ibérica”, French cellist Anne Gastinel and Argentinean guitarist Pablo Márquez (whose recording of the vihuela music of Luys de Narváez so impressed recently – ECM, 10/07) bring an urbane and sophisticated yet earthy and sensual quality to the songs and dances of Falla and Granados, as well as the solo guitar and solo cello music of the great Spanish cellist and friend of Andrés Segovia, Gaspar Cassadó. The opening Danza española No 1 from Falla’s La vida breve is a revelation, Gastinel’s spiccato-studded bowing showering fiery notes over Márquez’s crisply articulated accompaniment; the Intermezzo from Granados’s opera Goyescas and the same composer’s tonadilla La maja dolorosa meanwhile highlights the intense beauty of Gastinel’scantabile playing.

In another tonadilla, the well known La maja de Goya, Márquez displays the finely nuanced singing quality of his own playing; he is equally convincing in three works for solo guitar by Cassadó (here recorded for the first time), especially in the moving Canción de Leonardo, a homage to Segovia’s young son who was killed in an accident in 1951.

Gastinel also makes a solo contribution with Cassadó’s famous Suite for solo cello, fully availing herself of the expressive possibilities of this superb, multifaceted work. But this disc ultimately belongs to the chemistry that seems to exist between these two remarkable musicians. (William Yeoman / Gramophone)

Emmanuelle Bertrand LE VIOLONCELLE PARLE

The Harmonia Mundi album Le Violoncelle Parle (The Cello Speaks) takes its name notably from the Pascal Amoyel work for solo cello entitled Itinérance, a slow but evocative work in which the cellist must supplement the cello's own voice with vocalizations from the player him/herself. Beyond that, though, cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand selected her program of well-known works for solo cello as a way of demonstrating her instrument's ability to "speak" and transcend national borders. Her program includes the Russian folk-imbued Third Suite of Benjamin Britten, the Spanish panache and fieriness of Gaspar Cassadó's suite, and finally with the technically taxing and rhythmically exciting Hungarian writing of Zoltan Kodály's Op. 8 Solo Sonata. From start to finish, one thing is abundantly clear: Bertrand is a master of her instrument. Her copious, nearly flawless technique allows her to toss off even the most devilish passages in the Britten and Kodály with seeming ease. Her energies can then be spent on conveying the unique musical styles and languages of each composer, truly allowing her instrument to speak to her listeners. Her sound is magnificently rich and voluminous, and Harmonia Mundi's recorded sound gives listeners a dynamic front-row seat filled with vigorous finger-falls and punctuated breathing. (Mike D. Brownell)