Atma Classique releases the first album by Nicolas Ellis and the Violons du Roy, which is also the first to offer Canadian cellist Cameron Crozman the chance to shine in concerto. A rondo for cello and string orchestra by Jacques Hétu is associated with a refined interpretation of Haydn’s two cello concertos.
This disc comes at the right time for Nicolas Ellis, who will begin his first season at the helm of an orchestra in France (the one in Brittany) this fall. He is not documented in a large spectacular symphonic work, but he is with a renowned ensemble that enjoys great credibility and a sympathy rating.
In a way, in the memory of record lovers, the last association of the Violons du Roy with a cellist on record is that of Bernard Labadie and Truls Mørk in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach at Erato. The lineage is flattering.
For Nicolas Ellis, too, it is important. The chef recently declared to Duty about the Violons du Roy: “I was nominated, I think, for my affinity with the heritage of Bernard Labadie in 18th century musice century. I enjoy playing Haydn, Mozart or Gluck with Les Violons du Roy. But they also rely on me to bring creative music and music from the 19th centuryeXXe and XXIe centuries. In short, I am counted on to touch on what they do best, to broaden the repertoire and to bring discoveries.”
Growing the Legacy
When listening to this disc, it is important to remember these statements and to evoke this awareness of this lineage. The feline quality of Bernard Labadie’s baton in Haydn was one of the “trademarks” of the Violons du Roy. Nicolas Ellis makes this heritage bear fruit.
The most important thing is the partnership he builds with cellist Cameron Crozman, who here finally finds the opportunity to shine with an orchestra, after five chamber music albums, notably the three around him: Cavatinathe excellent Tapeo and the most arid Ricercari.
Usually, the scores of these concertos are taken like blankets that the soloists pull towards them, clutching them, as if to fight with them. The intention here is much more gallant, more “princely salon” than “concert hall”, not demonstrative, but chamber music. This unifies the two works, while the concerto in C is clearly of this aesthetic obedience and that in D, two decades later, intended for the Hanover Square Rooms, a concert hall in London, is more show off. We have heard so much muscular overbidding in the interpretation of these scores that this serene distinction does a lot of good. The winged lightness of the D minor finale is admirable, and Crozman concentrates the demonstrativeness in cadences of his own.
The coupling with the Rondo for cello and string orchestra op. 9 by Jacques Hétu is an excellent idea, which will spread the name of our national composer. It is the first concert work of the composer, then aged 27, a skillful and dense piece of five minutes. Rhythmic and syncopated, it owes much to Bartók. The link with Haydn is orthographic (classification with the letter “H”), nothing more. Aesthetically, the ideal coupling would rather be Eastern European music of the 20th centurye century.
It is worth noting that Cameron Crozman plays a cello by Auguste Sébastien Philippe Bernardel père (1849), loaned by Paul Pulford. Made in June 2023, the recording precedes by two months the third loan to Crozman from the Canada Council Instrument Bank, a 1750 Gennaro Gagliano, a product of the finest Neapolitan violin makers. We look forward to hearing this new acquisition from the Instrument Bank on the next disc.