SCHUMANN Cello Concerto - Michaela Fukačová

SCHUMANN Cello Concerto in A minor op 129

Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France
Eliahu Inbal
Michaela Fukačová

live recording 21.4.1990 , Paris , Salle Pleyel

A little story - it is slowly becoming my little private/public archive of memories....smile.....
This was actually my very first Schumann with orchestra! I got an invitation for this Paris debut by Sir John Pritchard, who heard and liked my Elgar. (Unfortunately he died in the end of 1989, so Maestro Eliahu Inbal took over. ) Those days I was crazy busy, driving through Europe in my Mitsubishi station car, playing concerts almost every day. Just before this Paris debut I played recitals in Vicenza and Verona. I had to drive all night after the last concert in Italy, to be in Paris next morning for the rehearsal with orchestra. Crossing the scary Alps roads in the night, my eyes closing constantly - the good old trick - widely open car window and singing very loudly Moravian songs - helped me to stay awake and make it to the rehearsel ine time...I remember mostly the stress of managing those appointments that time. As just the very next day after Schumann performance I had my debut in England! I had to leave the car in Paris and fly over the Channel in the morning to make it for the orchestra rehearsel and evening concert ( Dvorak) in Bristol. To stay in that crazy mood... the day after was my London debut - and with 2 concerts in one evening! First one was a shared recital in Purcell room with the great Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes - ( we were both winners of a Scandinavian music competition 'Nordisk Bienale' and the opportunity to play in London was a part of the award ) The second was Dvorak in the Barbican Hall with English symphony orchestra under William Boughton. As so many times in my life, concerts appeared simultaneously like clusters... But there was no way how to change the dates, the arrangers coudl only change the times, so that the recital started slightly earlier and the orchestra concert little later. Dvorak concerto was moved to the second half of the concert, so with help of a wating taxi, I managed to play both.