Natalie Clein
Natalie Clein
01 October 2007
IT’S MORE THAN A DECADE SINCE NATALIE CLEIN WON BBC YOUNG MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR WITH A PERFORMANCE OF THE ELGAR CELLO CONCERTO, BUT ONLY NOW HAS SHE RECORDED IT. FEMKE COLBORNE FINDS OUT WHY
As cellistic statements go it's hard to imagine one more bold than the decision to record the Elgar Cello Concerto. This bastion of the cello repertoire, which has marked the pinnacle of so many careers and is one of the most famous and best-loved classical works of all time, is not to be tackled lightly. And to do it in the year that marks the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth - well that's even more of a statement.
Are we to take this as a sign that Natalie Clein has finally cast aside the self-doubt that plagued her during the years following her victory at BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1994 and finally reached a stage where she is happy with her playing?
Apparently not. 'The answer for someone like me is always going to be no,' says the 30-year-old. 'But I do definitely feel much more in control. I think reliability is the main thing. I didn't really know how to really pull a performance together when I was feeling nervous or tired. I do have more confidence now - partly because of familiarity with the repertoire, and also confidence in what I believe is the right approach.'
'I felt that I'd missed out on a lot of study as a youngster - the work ethic here is just not as strenuous as in the States and on the continent'
After winning BBC Young Musician Clein took a five-year sabbatical to focus on improving her playing. 'I had to be a more finished cellist than I was,' she says. 'I would get terribly nervous. I just wasn't as technically polished as other musicians.'
As part of a strict self-imposed regime she began travelling to Vienna to take lessons with Heinrich Schiff, convinced that the great Austrian cellist was the answer to the doubts she had about her technique: 'I wanted to become the best cellist I could. I felt that I'd missed out on a lot of study as a youngster - the work ethic here is just not as strenuous as in the States and on the continent.'
She returned to the public eye in 1999 when she joined BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme, initially focusing mainly on chamber music. She also returned to the competition circuit, with impressive results: she won the Ingrid zu Solms Cultur Preis at the 2003 Kronberg Academie, and a Classical Brit Award for Young British Performer of the Year in 2005. In 2004 she signed an exclusive recording contract with EMI Classics and her debut recording, a recital disc of Brahms and Schubert cello sonatas with Charles Owen, was released in October that year. A further recording, of the Chopin and Rachmaninov cello sonatas, followed in September 2006.
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