Cello Concertos Nos 1 & 2
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DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
Cello Concertos Nos 1 & 2
Daniel Müller-Schott, (cello) / Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Yakov Kreizberg
[ Orfeo / CD ]
Release Date: Sunday 10 March 2013
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Even though both the First Cello Concerto Op. 107 of 1959 and the Second Cello Concerto Op.126 of 1966 were written after Stalin's death in 1953, the threat of Soviet dictatorship and censorship continues to be palpable.
With the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Yakov Kreizberg, Daniel Müller-Schott offers an exemplary interpretation of both concertos that also does justice to the peculiarities and details of their instrumentation, notably in the second movement of the Second Concerto, in which Shostakovich uses a popular song from the time of the Russian Revolution to produce a grotesque dance with dissonant fanfares. No less typical of Shostakovich are the reminiscences of composers such as Mussorgsky and the set of variations in the final movement of the Op. 126 Concerto, written at a time when the composer was already marked out by death, a piece described by Daniel Müller-Schott as "perhaps the most emotionally multilayered of all cello concertos", the abrupt ending of which is as disturbing as it is profoundly moving.
"Müller-Schott manages the singular trick of keeping his cello tone rich and gorgeous without lessening the music's ability to stab the heart. Listen to his lonely eloquence as he climbs up the first concerto's second movement, and the eerie shiverings at its peak, when cello harmonics join hands with the celesta in an unearthly duet. The second concerto receives an equally febrile performance." - The Times
"The dark-hued and deeply introspective Second remains an elusive, enigmatic work, and it's Daniel Müller-Schott's masterly performance of that which makes this disc especially impressive. Müller-Schott studied the two concertos with Rostropovich, but his tempi for the second are much slower than his teacher's so that the work's sombre subtext - the soloist as the creative artist, pitted against the repression of the Soviet state represented by the orchestra - is impossible to ignore with a finale that ends, like Shostakovich's 15th Symphony, with the death rattle of ticking percussion. Yakov Kreizberg and the Bavarian Radio Symphony provide outstanding support." - The Guardian
Tracks:
Shostakovich:
Cello Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 107
Cello Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 126
