 Le couplage a le mérite de l’inédit, même s’il eût été plus logique d’ouvrir le disque par la juvénile et pastorale Sérénade pour cordes, l’œuvre d’un Dvorak trentenaire, avant les plus tardifs opus pour violoncelle concertant. Reconnaissons aux artistes le mérite de se confronter à une très rude concurrence. Le violoncelle, plus souvent rugueux que lyrique, et enregistré trop en avant, du Tchèque Petr Nouzovsky, 39 ans, est plus à l’aise et moins exposé dans la jolie pièce méditative qui oiuvre le CD, Dans le silence de la forêt. C’est une autre paire de manches dans le grand concerto romantique, écrit pendant le séjour américain de Dvorak, à la même époque que la fameuse neuvième symphonie dite « du Nouveau Monde », le modeste orchestre de Pardubice, le chef-lieu de la Bohême orientale, mollement conduit par une baguette bien routinière, peinant à s’imposer face aux références nombreuses dans ce répertoire. On cherche vainement le grand souffle, l’archet généreux, le lyrisme éperdu, auxquels les gloires passées du violoncelle (Rostropovitch, Starker, Sadlo, Gutman, etc.) ont habitué nos oreilles. Au moins Petr Nouzovsky affirme-t-il une personnalité ! Quand il disparaît de l’affiche, on se retrouve pour la Sérénade pour cordes avec le seul orchestre de Pardubice, et surtout l’effrayante monotonie, voire l’atonie, qui caractérise la direction du vétéran Stanislav Vavrinek. La fraicheur, la jeunesse, l’élan ont déserté les cinq mouvements de cette sérénade qui paraît bien longue à l’écoute. On reviendra vite à Kubelik, Marriner ou Schmidt-Isserstedt pour retrouver Dvorak ! (Jean-Pierre Rousseau) Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904) was a great synthesist, ingeniously combining arguably incongruent strains: folk music (Czech as well as American) with refined classical forms, romantic extroversion with instrumental austerity and national Czech character with worldwide appeal. The three compositions on this album were all created at turning points in Dvorák’s life, when radical changes in his situation impacted his creative career. His Serenade for Strings was composed in 1875, the same year the impoverished musician became a successful composer almost overnight, after the publisher Simrock made Dvorák’s Moravian Duets a veritable bestseller, having agreed to work with him on the recommendation of Johannes Brahms. Each of the Serenade’s five movements is a variation on ternary (A–B–A) form. The resourcefulness with which Dvorák invents novel ways of returning from the middle section to the opening motive and key is astounding. Silent Woods has much to do with Dvorák’s relocation to America. He was engaged to establish and direct a new National Conservatory in New York. Based on his now established ability to blend Czech folk music with large-scale classical forms it was hoped he would do the same in his new post with American folk music. The Czech transplant indeed soon found his bearings and set about creating a new tradition of American national music on the highest artistic footing. In 1892, before leaving his home for the US, Dvorák gave something of a farewell tour of Czech cities, writing the cello version of Silent Woods for performance on these recitals. Ten years later, Dvorák created the version for cello and orchestra recorded here. At the conclusion of his time in New York and on his return to Bohemia, Dvorák was focused particularly on writing his Cello Concerto. At first believing the cello an unsuitable instrument for concertante music, his mind had been changed on hearing a concerto by American virtuoso and composer Victor Herbert, and Dvorák’s masterpiece took on its definitive form in 1895. Disagreements over alterations suggested by the work’s intended first soloist led to the premiere being delayed until a performance in London by Leo Stern in 1896. Now, no other concertante composition for cello and orchestra is performed more frequently on the international stage.
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