Cellocinema / Cello Project
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CELLOCINEMA • Eckart Runge (vc); Jacques Ammon (pn) • GENUIN 12220 (69:34) Music by ROTA, WAITS, HERRMANN, PIAZZOLLA, GARDEL, CATALANI, SHOSTAKOVICH, JANÁCEK, DALE, CHAPLIN, MORRICONE...
CELLOCINEMA • Eckart Runge (vc); Jacques Ammon (pn) • GENUIN 12220 (69:34)
Music by ROTA, WAITS, HERRMANN, PIAZZOLLA, GARDEL, CATALANI, SHOSTAKOVICH, JANÁCEK, DALE, CHAPLIN, MORRICONE
Film music is becoming an increasingly popular genre for classical musicians. In recent months I have reviewed, here and elsewhere, CDs with very similar repertory by the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet, the Austrian Salonists, and violinist Nicola Benedetti. All of them were rather bland and unadventurous, so I was skeptical about the present release. Despite the presence of what I am beginning to think of as “the usual suspects,” (Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” Ennio Morricone’s music from Cinema Paradiso , Shostakovich’s Romance from The Gadfly , etc.), Cellocinema is a cut above the aforementioned discs. I think the reason for this is that cellist Runge and pianist Ammon (who worked jointly on the arrangements) do not treat the music with excessive reverence. They are respectful, but they also have a good time with it. They show some imagination. For example, at the start of Bernard Herrmann’s main title for Psycho , Runge’s cello appears to be imitating a yowling cat . . . or is it the wind? But really, just the fact that Runge and Ammon took several sections of Herrmann’s score and arranged them for cello and piano is both funny and exciting. (The Montreal Guitar Trio also has recorded a fantastic arrangement of music from Psycho . I just thought you should know!) A suite of Nino Rota’s music from 8 1/2 is surprising too, and done with an appreciation for the film’s humor, which is both manic and pathetic.
Runge is a most expressive player. While he shows off beautiful cantabile playing in his arrangement of the famous aria from Catalani’s La Wally (the one used in Diva ) and in Chaplin’s “Smile,” at other times he roughs up his tone, or disguises it, “speaking” in a funny or choked voice as if he himself were a movie actor. Ammon is an equal partner in these proceedings, not allowing himself to be upstaged by Runge, but never competing with him either.
The only fault with this disc is the documentation. Herrmann’s first name was not “Bernhard” (I can imagine him screaming over this) and Janá?ek never wrote anything called The Unbearable Lightness of Being , although music of his was used in the eponymous film. The selection included here is the third of that composer’s set of three Fairy Tales , but you won’t know that from Genuin’s track listing or from Runge’s booklet notes. Most of the disc was recorded way back in 2003, but three of the tracks (Tom Waits’s “Helsinki Mood” from Night on Earth , Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” as used in Pulp Fiction , and “Smile”) are from 2012. No explanation is given for the nine-year gap, but you wouldn’t know it was there unless you read it, and of course that is a good thing. Cellocinema is one of those rare birds: a crossover disc that is neither silly nor pandering, and one that reveals that the performers have a genuine affinity for the material.
FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle
Product Description:
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Release Date: September 25, 2012
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UPC: 4260036252200
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Catalog Number: GEN 12220
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Label: Genuin
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Number of Discs: 1
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Composer: Alfredo Catalani, Astor Piazzolla, Bernard Herrmann, Carlos Gardel, Charles Chaplin, Dmitri Shostakovich, Ennio Morricone, Leoš Janáček, Nicholas Roubanis, Nino Rota, Tom Waits
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Orchestra/Ensemble: Cello Project
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Performer: Cello Project, Runge, Ammon