God is in the detail
5:00AM
Thursday April 03, 2008
By William Dart
The Elgar Concerto has always had a special place in the repertoire of English cellist Natalie Clein as Aucklanders will no doubt experience when she plays it with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra tomorrow.
Clein was 16 when she won the BBC Musician of the Year with this work and, just last year, she recorded it with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Vernon Handley. She describes Handley as "a great Elgarian ... deeply passionate about every marking in the score".
"People say God is in the detail, don't they?" she adds.
Clein says her appreciation of the score has "evolved with my understanding of grief. I would say I understand the ending more, the very final page where there is this long outpouring of the deepest sadness".
She has glowing praise for cellists from Rostropovich and Du Pre through to Steven Isserlis, but when it comes to the Elgar Concerto, Clein picks out the 1927 recording of the work featuring cellist Beatrice Harrison, conducted by the composer himself.
