LDV71

18 OFFENBACH Offenbach has been called the ‘Liszt of the cello’. Did he introduce new developments in cello writing, as Liszt did on the piano? Anne Gastinel: From a technical point of view, there are no fundamentally innovative features in Offenbach. On the other hand, he makes the most of the instrument’s possibilities. Xavier Phillips: Really the most! However, there’s nothing ‘Kodály-like’ in Offenbach’s attitude. When you work on Kodály’s Sonata, you wonder where he picked up all the innovations you find there; it’s the same thing with the Strophes of Dutilleux – who took the Hungarian composer as an example. Offenbach, for his part, stayed in amore straightforward register, but at a level of diabolical difficulty. He must have been a very gifted cellist or else . . . very good at faking! ( laughs ) Or both, because it also takes a lot of talent to fake like that!