Review by Simon Jenner, 18th June 2025
Frantisek Brikcius returns this time to give a solo cello recital. It’s twin pillars are Bach’s Cello Suites No.1 in G and 3 in C. Casals once characterised these two as ‘optimistic’ and ‘heroic’ respectively. Other short items interlace but the big work otherwise is Weinberg’s Cello Concertino reduced to a version for solo cello.
Bach’s G major BWV1097 is the apparently simplest (they ascend in order of complexity) and follows a genial flight of dance movements. The direct sonorous approach Brikcius employs means expressive depths never lingered over. Naturally the minor keyed Suites (2 and 5) would be interesting to hear.
After the Prelude the Allemande ha a bounce and a dug-in sonority that’s infectious, particularly in the brisk Courante with its funky rhythms.
The following Sarabande is where Brikcius contrasts his pace with a deeply reflective almost Adagio pace, letting the double-stopping graunch deliciously over the strings. It makes me curious to know what instrument he’s playing too. It’s in fact a1904’GeorgecKriwalski’ and quite superb. Its tonal palate is phenomenal in Brikcius’ hands.
The two Menuets glide by swaying in contrast, light and dark. The final Gigue is another delight with grater contrasts than either, and more speed even than the Courante. It’s also often stratospheric and joyous.
Irina Kosikova’s Stropy for solo cello dates from 2005 is brief and almost understated but packs a memorable so I punch. Slow in the lowest registers it rises like a leviathan of pain but only so far. Kosikova’s music is championed by Brikcius and his sister Anna.
Bach’s Cello Suite in C BWV1009 follows the same pattern as no 1 Dave that two Bourrees replace the Menuets.
It’s a broader Prelude ascending the fire of invention using the full range of the cello: a rather grand effect too. The following Allemande is almost boisterous and dolphin-like. The Courante runs less than it’s meant to here, since Bach freights it with variety of pace, pitch and pressure. It makes for a fascinating mid-Suite swerve.
The Sarabande also treated like an adagio is contemplative rather than tragic, a thoughtful pause in a career of heltering movement. There’s some enharmonic stretches over the essential slow dances and again the Suite’s deployment of wife dynamics and sonorities.
The Bourees are attractive and somewhat boisterous. The second is affecting Leeds into an exhilarating Gigue that reaches for stars by digging done.
Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-96) friend of Shostakovich was often dismissed as an epigone. Which both would have vigorously rebutted. Weinberg often influenced his friend. Wein BB reg escaped Poland where his Jewish family perished. Brikcius and his sister have specialized in music if the Holocaust and this is a notable work.
His Cello Concertino in C minor Op 43bis from 1948 has been arranged for solo cello. It’s a remarkable work. From a slow spare Arc of loss and remembrance. Soaring in a Kaddsh-like hymn, one a single line, it’s power and pain are not easy forgotten. It’s a measure of Weinberg ‘s quality that he can manage this effortlessly: a quite stark melody. It fades into loss. A coda of some tonal lightness is a sinister dance.
Without pausing Brikcius moves to Mike Ratledge (1943-2025) so this performs another act of homage or Kaddish with the more jauntily titled ‘Out-Bloody-Rageous’ arranged again for solo cello. It’s a darker piece than its title suggests, full of zigs and elbowing zags, utilising the cello’s range brushed with a bow’s hair of jazz, but essentially a serious piece. Indeed a thoughtful ride over the cello not unallied to the Weinberg. A superb recital.
