Othmar Schoeck - Christian Poltéra plays Othmar Schoeck

Information

Composer: Othmar Schoeck

• Concerto for Cello and String Orchestra, Op. 61
• Sonata for Cello and Piano
• Six Song transcriptions (for cello and piano)

Christian Poltéra, cello

Malmö Symphony Orchestra

Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen, conductor

Julius Drake, piano

Date: 2007

Label: BIS

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Review

Desirable debut from a young cellist with a work that deserves recognition

His output dominated by operas and Lieder, Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957) wrote few large-scale orchestral and chamber works. Of his three concertos, that for cello (1947) is among his last pieces and exudes an autumnal spirit. Its opening Allegro is among the composer’s most successful sonata movements, generating no mean rhythmic momentum in spite of its predilection for long-breathed melodic lines, and purposefully sustaining its considerable length. The slow movement is the emotional heart – a luminous threnody in which the interplay of cello and strings is particularly felicitous. A brief but animated Scherzo and a finale that recalls earlier themes, while maintaining impetus on the way to a decisive conclusion, complete a work that ought to find its way into the still-limited cello canon now the Schumann concerto has become firmly established.

Christian Poltéra taps its ruminative depths unerringly and receives sensitive support from the Malmö Symphony strings under the direction of Tuomas Ollila. Julius Drake is equally responsive in the remaining pieces. The Cello Sonata remained incomplete at Schoeck’s death: if its first movement evinces a certain weariness, the pert Scherzo and songful Andantino suggest a work likely to become more than the sum of its parts. The song transcriptions (presumably by Poltéra) are idiomatically done; that of the winsome Nachklang deserves to be an encore in every cellist’s repertoire. Warmly spacious sound and informative booklet-notes round out this desirable debut from a highly promising cellist.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:

ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/may/18/classicalmusicandopera.shopping4

https://www.allmusic.com/album/christian-polt%C3%A9ra-plays-othmar-schoeck-mw0001865956

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Othmar Schoeck (1 September 1886 – 8 March 1957) was a Swiss composer and conductor. Schoeck  studied with Max Reger, and was influenced by Ferruccio Busoni and Hugo Wolf. He was known mainly for his considerable output of art songs and song cycles, though he also wrote a number of operas, notably his one-act Penthesilea, which was premiered at the Semperoper in Dresden in 1927 and revived at the Lucerne Festival in 1999. He wrote a handful of instrumental compositions, including two string quartets and concertos for violin (for Stefi Geyer, dedicatee also of Béla Bartók's first concerto), cello and horn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othmar_Schoeck

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Christian Poltéra (born 1977 in Zurich, Switzerland) is a Swiss cellist. He studied cello with Nancy Chumachenko, Boris Pergamenschikow and Heinrich Schiff. During his student years Poltéra was already drawing notice as a soloist, and by the turn of the new century he was regarded among the most talented young Swiss cellists. He regularly appears as soloist with leading orchestras and has collaborated in chamber music with artists such as Mitsuko Uchida and Gidon Kremer. Poltéra has recorded for various labels, including BIS, Chandos, DG, and Naxos. Poltéra plays a 1675 Antonio Casini cello.

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/christian-polt-eacute-ra-mn0001691728/biography

http://www.christianpoltera.com/

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