Classical Music | Cello Music

Recorded on 12/07/2012, uploaded on 12/07/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Compared to his prolific output in nearly every other genre, Dmitri Shostakovich wrote but a handful of concertos—numbering six in all, two each for piano, violin, and cello. The first, a neo-Baroque concerto for piano, appeared in 1933; the next, the Violin Concerto No. 1, fell victim to the official denunciation of the composer in the Zhdanov Decree. The remaining four concertos, on the other hand, all appeared over the course of a decade beginning in 1957, four years after the death of Stalin and Shostakovich’s return to favor with the Soviet regime. Among these last four concertos was the Cello Concerto No. 1, op. 107.

The First Cello Concerto was, in a way, indirectly commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovich. Rostropovich had studied under Shostakovich at the Moscow Conservatory, where the two became friends. He encouraged several of the 20^th century’s foremost composers, including Britten and Prokofiev, to compose works for the cello, and wished to do the same with Shostakovich. He approached Shostakovich’s wife about commissioning a concerto, but her only advice on how to achieve the commission was to “never ask him or talk to him about it.” Rostropovich followed her advice and never brought the issue up with Shostakovich himself. In the meantime, he did encourage Prokofiev to compose his Sinfonia Concertante for cello and orchestra, which became the impetus for Shostakovich to write a concerto. In 1959, he presented the work to Rostropovich. In four days, the cellist committed the work to memory and premiered it with Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic on October 4. The following month, Rostropovich made the first recording of the concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy.

Modestly scored for two each of woodwinds, a single horn, timpani, celeste and strings, the Cello Concerto is a deeply somber and serious work, frequently colored with the dark hues of minor tonalities despite its over tonic of E-flat major. It is one of the most difficult concertos in the cello repertoire and among the most important written in the 20^th century. The first movement, described by the composer as a “jocular march,” is a lively movement based on the composer’s DSCH motif. The lone horn establishes itself in this movement as a solo instrument second in importance only to the cello. Likewise, the timpani are also brought to the fore with fierce and abrupt punctuations. Comprising four movements in all, the concerto’s last three are played without pause. The elegiac second movement leads into a particularly lengthy cadenza that stands as a separate movement in its own right. Developing material from the preceding movement, the cadenza prepares the way for the rhythmically intense Rondo finale. Returning to the frantic pace of the first movement, the finale brings about a virtuosic end that closes abruptly with forceful strokes from the timpani.      Joseph DuBose

Recorded live on June 2012 at Strasbourg Festival
Conducted by Theodor Guschlbauer,
Sinfonia Varsovia

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