Fleur De Paris

The 12 Cellists of the Berlin PhilharmonicEMI Classics 608 5012

An ensemble of 12 cellos depends on a particular kind of shape-shifting to work. The cellos need to sing and dance, and sometimes to boom, in ways that may sound strange, even alien, to their normal character. And there’s no group of players who do this kind of thing better than the cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic. Their new disc is devoted to French music. It’s all heard in arrangements and includes popular songs (from

Sous les ponts de Paris

through

La Vie en rose to Une femme est une femme

) and Poulenc’s rarely heard choral piece,

Figure humaine

. The Poulenc not only loses its words by Paul Éluard, but also seems to change shape too much, swelling and lingering in the air in the wrong places. Satie’s ubiquitous

Gymnopédie

No 1 doesn’t make a successful transition either. But Debussy’s

Clair de lune

is simply gorgeous, and some of the popular songs are riotously successful.

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