 Schumann est un compositeur qui fut long à venir à ma conscience musicale. Je ne le comprenais pas. Il me plongeait dans une sorte d’abstraction, au mieux de l’indifférence, au pire de l’ennui ! Puis j’ai découvert l’intégrale de l’œuvre orchestrale d’Heinz Holliger, de même que le concerto pour violoncelle par André Navarra et les opus 70, 73 et 102 menés par Pierre Fournier, qui sont les maîtres étalons du genre. Difficile de passer après les interprètes suscités, et c’est pourtant ce qu’Ella Van Poucke a tenté de faire avec ce premier disque. Techniquement, elle nous propose un magnifique son de violoncelle, couplé à une production parfaite. Malgré son amour indéniable de la musique de Schumann, il manque un petit quelque chose afin de tirer pleinement le disque vers le haut. Ce « petit quelque chose » est bien plus palpable lors de ses prestations scéniques (notamment pour son interprétation live du concerto de Dvorak). Nul doute que pour son prochain album, « le feu » sera là, j’en suis certain. (Jean-Luc Pernel) Ella van Poucke. Winner of the prestigious Premio Chigiana 2017 and recently awarded the Grachtenfestival Prize, the 27 year old Dutch cellist belongs to the top rank of today's generation of cellists. She is the first prize winner of the International Isang Yun cello competition 2015, the Leopoldinum Award 2015, Prix Nicolas Firmenich 2013, Elisabeth Everts Award 2014, Prix Academie Maurice Ravel 2012, Dutch Musician of the Year 2012, first prize winner of the 2008 Princess Christina Competition and recipient of the special prize in “recognition of an outstanding performance at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann 2014. Schumann composed his Cello Concerto in about two weeks during November 1850. Before Schumann, few major composers had written cello concertos. Schumann avoids technical display for its own sake, allowing his characteristic poetic expression, intimacy and fantasy to prevail. Schumann originally scored the Fantasiestücke Opus 73 (1849) for clarinet and piano but simultaneously provided alternative arrangements for violin or cello. In his choice of clarinet Schumann was typically innovative. The three pieces are melodically interrelated, creating a unity underlined by the absence of breaks between them. Schumann's Adagio and Allegro in A flat major, Opus 70 dates from a week after the Fantasiestucke Opus 73. He originally intended his Opus 70 for the new valve horn, though he named cello, violin or viola as alternative instruments. The piece is fully characteristic of Schumann's Romantic spirit. The expansive and dreamily romantic Adagio gives way to an Allegro with a leaping, joyful main theme. Just as Schumann had wanted “popular elements” to prevail in his Rhenish Symphony (1850), the Fünf stücke im Volkston (1849) are correspondingly simple, tuneful and accessible. Nevertheless Schumann's creative imagination and wide expressive range are no less apparent.
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