Shostakovich: Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Album review

Literary critics use the notion of the "anxiety of influence" to describe the predicament of artists who have to contend the presence of an overwhelmingly powerful model, like Brahms vis-à-vis Beethoven, for example, or any cellist performing Russian repertory after Mstislav Rostropovich. Cellist Alban Gerhardt refers to his efforts to get away from Rostropovich in a short note included with this release, and his efforts are most audible in the matter of tempo. He takes the opening movement of the Cello Concerto No. 2 in G major, Op. 126, at a much-quicker-than-usual clip, offering a new interpretation of Shostakovich's enigmatic metronome markings. The trouble with this is that this brings his reading in at about two and a half minutes shorter than Rostropovich's recordings, and also than that of Heinrich Schiff with Maxim Shostakovich conducting. (Other cellists have taken it even more slowly.) His reading lends the movement a nervous quality, which makes sense in the abstract but brings the three movements closer together in tempo; as Rostropovich had it, the work expresses intense sadness followed by a kind of bitter vulgarity. This quality goes a long way toward explaining why the work is less often performed than the Cello Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 107; Gerhardt's alterations are less dramatic here, and his forceful tone is displayed to maximum advantage. Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conducting the WDR Sinfonieorchester, is in lockstep with Gerhardt all the way. None of the foregoing is to suggest that this is an inferior reading of the Shostakovich cello concertos, but listeners should be aware that it marks a substantial reinterpretation of the work.

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