From: rtut@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Raymond Tuttle)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Russian Cello Concertos - New on CD
Date: 14 Aug 92 01:28:56 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)

An interesting new disc on the Philips label (434 106) fills some
important gaps in the repertoire for cello and orchestra.  The CD
includes the first modern recording of Miaskovsky's Cello Concerto in C
minor, and Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme  in a version
which apparently is closer to the composer's original intentions.  The
cellist is Julian Lloyd Webber, and the London SO is conducted by Maxim
Shostakovich (Dmitri's son). 

Miaskovsky's underplayed concerto sounds like a long journey through
an autumnal landscape, or somewhat like Elgar's concerto with a
Russian accent.  It does not straddle a broad emotional range, but it is a
lovely, if rather depressing work.  As for Tchaikovsky's more famous
variations, they usually are heard in an edition by Wilhelm Fitzenhagen,
the work's first performer.  Fitzenhagen deleted some variations and
switched others around, and generally tampered with the score, and the
composer's failure to do anything about this, Robert Layton's notes
argue, reflected his distraught emotional state at the time rather than
his tacit agreement to Fitzenhagen's emendations.  I find the
composer's original thoughts to be more sincere and characteric.
Tchaikovsky's Nocturne in D minor (more famous as a piano work) and
the Adagio from Dmitri Shostakovich's ballet "The Limpid Stream" are
attractive but lightweight fillers. 

Webber's tone sings and has enough sinew to keep from turning mushy,
although he needs to be more expressive.  Rostropovich's recording of
the Miaskovsky concerto is not displaced.  The accompaniments are
considerably warmer.  The recording is realistic, placing the cellist in
a reasonable position both in relation to the orchestra and the listener. 

Schnittke's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 2 dates from 1990, and
it already has been recorded twice. The current recording on SONY
Classical (SK 48241) predated the one on BIS (played by the young
Torlief Thedeen) by only a matter of months.  

On this recording, the work is played by Mstislav Rostropovich, the
work's dedicatee.  He is accompanied by the London SO (again), this
time conducted by Seiji Ozawa.  Tempos are significantly faster than
on the BIS recording, not necessarily to the music's advantage; the
fourth movement ends up sounding a little shallow here.  However,
SONY's recording has a stronger sense of irony, and the moving final
movement (a Passacaglia) works better with Rostropovich and Ozawa. 
The cello is grotesquely loud and forward, almost as if Slava were
sitting on one's lap. 

The coupling, Schnittke's "In memoriam . . ." (an arrangement of the
composer's Piano Quintet) is a  different story.  Here Rostropovich puts
down his bow and picks up his baton to produce a recording which blows
away the competition (again on BIS in their complete Schnittke series). 
Rostropovich penetrates the music's morbid sensitivity with a strong
hand, almost making the listener recoil at the work's emotional depth. 
For those coming to Schnittke for the first time, "In memoriam . . . "
might be a good place to start, although the Second Cello Concerto is a
thornier and less accessible work than its predecessor.   





--
****************************************   Raymond S. Tuttle
"Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod,"       University of Rochester
but it's nothing to get depressed about!   (still with his two little 
****************************************   white mice).
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical