TRANSCRIPTIONS

I know of no more dramatic and beautifully played account of the Concerto.

Sol Gabetta is a cellist in great demand as a concert performer. If the high-end German record shops such as Ludwig Beck, Munich and Dussmann, Berlin are anything to go by Gabetta is being strongly marketed by her record label. The programme chosen this time for the young Argentine cellist is all-Shostakovich with wonderful accounts of both the Concerto and the Sonata. The Concerto recording was made at live concerts in January 2008 in the admirable acoustic of the Philharmonie at Munich’s Gasteig. The applause has been elided. On the other hand the Sonata in which Gabetta teams up with Romanian-born pianist Mihaela Ursuleasa is a studio recording made in Zurich. My disc was sent from Germany with German-only text.

The Cello Concerto No.2, written in the last decade of his life, was dedicated to Rostropovich who premièred the score at Shostakovich’s 60th birthday concert in Moscow. Compared to the first Cello Concerto, Op. 107 from 1959 this relatively underrated score is only now beginning to establish its rightful place in the repertoire. The harsh constraints of living and working under the Soviet regime must surely have helped shape its character.

In the opening Largo the cello plays virtually continuously. Right from the first bars the darkly brooding intensity of the cello is spine-tingling. Gabetta’s rich mocha-toned instrument is caught splendidly by the sound engineers. Taking the listener by surprise the cannon salvos and pounding martial beat at 3:58-4:03 is highly dramatic. From 4:31 the anguished wails of the cello are remarkably affecting. A reflective passage on the cello at 5:34 and 6:55 is developed by the orchestra into a thickly textured and deeply depressing episode. A concentrated section from 7:28 feels almost overwhelming. Coming as a welcome relief from 8:35 is a more upbeat passage. It is not long before the playful figures become restless and demanding and the overwhelming weight of torment returns. At 10:32-10:59 the percussion blows are quite ferocious and serve as an ominous warning. The pounding continues but fades and disappears into the distance. Over a rumbling and restless orchestra the cello from 12:54 with its plaintive theme tries to calm the agitation.

Serving as a Scherzo the central movement marked Allegretto is terse and highly rhythmic. A waltz-like street theme on the cello with a sardonic twist opens the movement. Horn-calls punctuate the scene together with a colourful array of percussive effects. Gabetta’s energetic playing cuts through the macabre orchestral writing seemingly intent on holding the cello back. Played continuously, the closing movement also an Allegretto, is heralded by a horn fanfare and drum-roll. Gabetta plays a languorous melody of a certain nobility that has been described as “ barcarolle-like”. Especially interesting are the unusual orchestral textures with notable percussive effects. From 4:41 the tempi shift quickly several times and take on a curious galloping quality. At 6:35 the cello theme becomes one of sadness and tender introspection - a mood that underpins the remainder of the movement. Percussion lashes against a frenetic cello line from 9:41 create a disconcerting effect and this builds to a terrifying climax at 10:52. The breathless cello writing then recovers its poise to repeat the melancholic but introspectively steely theme. If that was possible the mood becomes even more mournful with Gabetta’s cello sounding as if it was weeping. Snare drums and other light percussion effects close the score. The orchestra provide warm and positive support .

For alternative versions of the Cello Concerto No.2 I have long been satisfied with that from cellist Heinrich Schiff with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Maxim Shostakovich. With playing of impressive assurance the performance was recorded in 1984 at the Hercules Hall, Residenz, Munich on Philips 475 7575. (c/w Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1). Another beautifully played account is from cellist Mischa Maisky with the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas. It was recorded in 1993 at the Abbey Road Studios in London on Deutsche Grammophon 445 821-2. (c/w Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1).

The four movement Cello Sonata was written when Shostakovich still had artistic freedom. This was prior to the denunciation in 1936 by the Soviet authorities and before his fall from favour owing to the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. Essentially a lyrical score rather than experimental the Sonata was premièred in 1934 in Moscow by cellist Viktor Kubatsky, its dedicatee. Interestingly there have been several arrangements for viola and piano.

The two main themes of the opening movement could not be more different in character. The first is an upright elegant melody that Gabetta and Ursuleasa. It is intensified in tension and made more weighty until it becomes unruly bordering on stormy. By contrast the second theme is cloaked in lush yearning Romanticism. Gabetta’s glorious tone is outstanding and Ursuleasa revels in the long warm lines. An Allegro the second movement is a countryside romp that Gabetta and Ursuleasa develop into the manner of an excitable folk dance. Sombre and mournful in the third movement Largo Gabetta’s cello sounds as if it is sobbing. The intensity becomes heavier with the cello reaching down to its deepest register. In the skittish and scampering Rondo: Finale the piano has abundant opportunity to shine with Ursuleasa demonstrating her assurance in a number of dazzling runs. It is Gabetta’s relatively restrained cello part that keeps the merriment in check.

For both the splendid playing as well being an important music document I admire the version of the Sonata played by cellist Daniil Shafran and the composer on piano. Recorded in 1956 I have the performance on Revelation RV10017. (c/w Rachmaninov Cello Sonata). I also play often the account from cellist Leonid Gorokhov and pianist Nikolai Demidenko. This satisfying version was recorded at Champs Hill, Pulborough, Sussex in 2004 on ASV Gold GLD4006.

I was perfectly happy with this RCA Victor Red Seal recording in both the concerto and sonata. Gabetta’s cello is placed well forward and is vividly clear. I know of no more dramatic and beautifully played account of the Concerto.

-- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

Over the last three or four years, Yo-Yo Ma has been exploring the peaks of the cello repertory in a quickly growing series of LPs. Those disks, in turn, have helped establish him not only as one of the finest cellists of his generation... The Kabalevsky...boasts a melancholy central Largo with the kind of long, arching cello line that allows Mr. Ma to display his rich sound.

-- Allian Kozinn, The New York Times [1/1/1984]

Following on from their highly acclaimed first album featuring three quartets by Haydn, the Munich-based Goldmund Quartet now celebrates its debut on the Berlin Classics label. Florian Schötz, Pinchas Adt, Christoph Vandory and Raphael Paratore take a leap – not just in time, but from a musical point of view. Their programme here features Shostakovich’s String Quartets Nos 3 and 9. Since making its debut at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, this young and ambitious quartet, described by the Süddeutsche Zeitung as possessing “decidedly appealing musicality with a truly individual signature”, has become popular on the music stages of Europe and further afield. The four musicians, who have known each other since their school days, gained significant musical impetus from members of the Alban Berg Quartet, as well as from the likes of Günter Pichler in Madrid and the Artemis Quartet in Berlin. Winning second prize and the Special Prize at the 2018 International Wigmore Hall String Competition for the best interpretation of a 20th-century quartet is proof that these four musicians know what they are doing when it comes to performing Shostakovich: “The greatest challenge is that this music is so extreme. Elation, incredible downs, unbelievable sadness. You need to immerse yourself in these different emotional moods.”

The fifteen string quartets composed by Dmitri Shostakovich established him as one of the masters of this genre. These works show him at his most concentrated and most intimate. Although each is quite different in form and structure, every bar of them reveals some aspect of the composer's character, from wild humour to black despair, with an all-pervasive nervous tension. Without texts, descriptive titles or any overt public agenda, they can be heard as revelations of the composer's musicianship in it's most essential form. For it's first release on BIS Records, the Jerusalem Quartet presents three of Shostakovich's quartets. Although the Second String Quartet was composed in 1944, it's character is elusive and it makes no direct reference to the war. Yet this is a substantive work, dark, powerful and at times dissonant. The Seventh Quartet, consisting of three short movements played without interruption, is an enigmatic and deeply personal work dedicated to the memory of the composer's wife. For all it's questioning and complex inner references, the Tenth Quartet is among the most immediately appealing of his later works. By this stage in his life, Shostakovich's music tended to speak in a quieter voice and to a more intimate audience.

BERNARD HAITINK conducts: SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONY No. 15 in A major op. 141. The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra enjoyed a long and intensive artistic collaboration, which came to an abrupt end with Haitink's death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and previously unreleased live recordings of their concerts from past years. This recording of Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony documents a concert given in February 2015 in Munich's Philharmonie i'm Gasteig. Haitink first conducted a Munich subscription concert in 1958, and from then on was a regular guest with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra - either in the Herkulessaal of the Residenz or in the Philharmonie i'm Gasteig. This congenial collaboration lasted for more than six decades. The orchestra musicians and singers enjoyed working with him just as much as the BR sound engineers. As an interpreter of the symphonic repertoire, and especially that of the German-Austrian Late Romantic period, Haitink was held in high esteem throughout the world. With him, the symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich were always in the best of hands. Haitink's driving principle was to make the sound architecture of a musical composition, with it's complex interweaving, transparently audible; extreme sensitivity of sound was combined with a clearly structured interpretation of the score. As the last symphony in the oeuvre of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, the Fifteenth is a kind of symphonic conclusion. Although the composer set out to write a "happy symphony" and this epithet has since become commonplace, everything cheerful in it has a dimension that is exaggerated into the bizarre and grotesque. The work also contains musical references, for example to Rossini's "William Tell" overture, Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung" (the so-called "fate motif") and "Tristan and Isolde", and Alban Berg's "Wozzeck". Quotations from Shostakovich's own earlier works also appear. The symphony was composed in 1971 in Repino, a suburb of St Petersburg. The world premiere took place on January 8, 1972, under the baton of the composer's son Maxim.

BBC Radio 3's "Building a Library: Shostakovich" makes this performance the top choice for the Shostakovich Cello Sonata.

"The Trio receives a deeply felt performance, one which can hold its own with any issue, past or present." -- The Penguin Guide [2003/4 edtion]

SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONY NO 14

SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONY NO 5, E

SHOSTAKOVICH Fantastic Dances . Piano Sonata No. 2. Preludes, op. 34 • Lilia Boyadjieva (pn) • ARTEK AR-0048-2 (66: 19)


The Bulgarian-born pianist Lilia Boyadjieva has been praised in these pages by Walter Simmons and Peter Burwasser for her “power and delicacy” performing the music of Samuel Barber ( Fanfare 20:4) and “intensity of purpose and bold dynamic command” in a program of fugues ranging from Bach to Shchedrin ( Fanfare 30:6), respectively—attributes that are certainly in evidence in this program of somewhat more varied and challenging music. Boyadjieva having graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, Shostakovich’s music was likely an important part of her studies, and she sounds especially comfortable with the stylistic quirks of the youthful dances (composed when he was 16) and the preludes (from 1932–33, probably as a warm-up for his First Piano Concerto and after he had completed the shocking opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk ). With crisp, clear phrasing, Boyadjieva is able to draw out the significant details in Shostakovich’s concise essays; she balances the many contrasting tempos without exaggerating them, and avoids placing undue emphasis on the music’s more exotic characteristics. Thus, for example, she can suggest lyrical echoes of Chopin (and, naturally, Chopin’s Russian heir, Scriabin) in the filigree of Prelude No. 2, expose the melancholy drama so typical of Shostakovich in No. 20, achieve a whispery delicacy in No. 17, and toss off the dazzling No. 5 with equal aplomb.


The Second Piano Sonata offers a different set of challenges to the performer. It was composed in 1942, between the Seventh and Eighth symphonies, possibly the bleakest period of the composer’s life, and following a somewhat turbulent opening movement, Shostakovich relates feelings of an almost incapacitating depression in the slow second movement, concluding the sonata with an extended sequence of variations of symphonic breadth, a gradual dramatic crescendo that dissolves into introspective secrecy. The same sense of proportion and balance that Boyadjieva brings to the preludes, while musically convincing, does not in this case fully account for the extreme emotional distress the music portrays. Her slow movement, though sensitive to the music’s hushed tone and arid texture, does not reach the level of breathtaking bitterness and shattered anguish conveyed by Boris Petrushansky on a 1989 MCA Classics disc. Likewise, Tatiana Nikolayeva, on Hyperion, despite a few missteps and rough spots, offers a palpable sense of gravity and stark expressionism. Her piano tone is powerful (bass notes thunder like cannon) and her slower pace in the opening and closing movements has a sardonic edge that’s missing in other accounts.


Still, though without the overt emotionalism others have brought to it, Boyadjieva has a good grasp of the sonata, and combined with her appealing performance of the 24 Preludes, this is a disc worth hearing.


FANFARE: Art Lange

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

THE ROYAL EDITION - SHOSTAKOVI

SHOSTAKOVICH: Works for 2 Pianos and Piano 4-Hands (Complete