It is the year 1966, in the Soviet Union. While Shostakovich is enjoying the success of the world première of his Second Cello Concerto, the Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze is putting the finishing touches on his own new work. In their respective concertos, these two composers draw their own psychogram: a sombre landscape intermittently illuminated by rays of light, brightened up with a few prudent dabs of color here and there. German shooting star cellist Maximilian Hornung releases here his first album on the myrios classics label. Born 1986 in Augsburg, Hornung studied with David Geringas, Thomas Grossenbacher and Eldar Issakadze, to whom he dedicated the album. It was Issakadze who introduced him to the fascinating music of Sulkhan Tsintsadze, one of the most celebrated composers of Georgia. The musical link of Tsintsadze’s Second Cello Concerto to the late work of his Soviet colleague and contemporary, Dmitri Shostakovich is at the core of this gloomy, yet enchanting album. The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the baton of the Latvian conductor Andris Poga provides perfect musical partnership.

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REVIEW:

Because both concertos were composed in 1966 we get a new-to-disc work by the more or less forgotten Georgian composer, Sulkhan Tsintsadze. It shares with fellow Georgian Giya Kancheli an inclination for melancholy and contemplativeness but stops well short of the latter’s violent dynamic contrasts. Play it a few times in a row and it will grow on you.

– Records International

Both works date from 1966 and both leave the soloist a huge degree of expressive liberty. Tsintsadze is very good at disguising folk roots in his music and Shostakovich, by this time, is an unassailable master. This is quite a cello feast.

– Norman Lebrecht