Prokofiev: Cello Concerto & Symphony-Concerto

Album review

Cellist Alban Gerhardt had previously released two discs in Hyperion's Romantic Cello Concertos series: one from 2004, of Dohnányi, Enescu, and d'Albert, and one from 2007, featuring Schumann, Volkmann, Dietrich, and Gernsheim. Since the music on those discs was mediocre or worse, this coupling of Prokofiev's Cello Concerto and Symphony-Concerto is Gerhardt's first concerto recording featuring top-drawer repertoire, and the result is entirely successful. The concertos themselves are fascinating. The later Symphony-Concerto is Prokofiev's marvelous reimagining of his earlier Cello Concerto that reveals as much about the composer's personality and working methods as his similarly reimagined Fourth Symphony. That the music is also among the composer's most lyrical only makes it more appealing. In first-class repertoire, Gerhardt reveals himself to be a first-class player. His tone is strong but supple, his interpretations are sensitive but individualistic, and his technique is simply breathtaking. He tackles the two works' cadenzas, both among the most difficult in the standard repertoire, with tremendous verve and virtuosity. Even more importantly, Gerhardt gets under the works' skin and expresses their meaning with sympathy and fluency, and he can differentiate between the work of the middle-aged and vigorous Prokofiev of the Cello Concerto and the aging and introspective Prokofiev of the Symphony-Concerto. In the former work, conductor Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic are apt accompanists, while in the later, they are more like full partners, an absolutely appropriate distinction in view of the works' contracting solutions to the relationship between soloist and orchestra. In both works, Litton and the Norwegian orchestra perform with immense style and dash. As is typical for the label, Hyperion has provided the performers with a clear yet evocative recording. Although Mstislav Rostropovich's 1954 recording of the Symphony-Concerto remains the ne plus ultra -- the work was rewritten for and premiered by the great Russian cellist -- Gerhardt's is a wholly worthy performance in its own right.

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