Dmitri Shostakovich - Cello Concertos (Heinrich Schiff)

Information

Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich

1. Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 107: I. Allegretto
2. Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 107: II. Moderato
3. Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 107: III. Cadenza -
4. Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 107: IV. Allegro con moto
5. Cello Concerto No. 2, Op. 126: I. Largo
6. Cello Concerto No. 2, Op. 126: II. Allegretto -
7. Cello Concerto No. 2, Op. 126: III. Allegretto

Heinrich Schiff, cello
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Maxim Shostakovich, conductor

Date: 1984
Label: Philips
http://www.deccaclassics.com/us/cat/4757575

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

If you're looking for an exceptional recording of Shostakovich's two cello concertos, this is the one to own. The recent Wallfisch on Nimbus also is extremely fine, and very different interpretively, but it additionally includes the remaining music for cello and piano, and I can understand many listeners not looking for a cello transcription of the late Viola Sonata. Both of these concertos are extraordinary, the Second no less so than the First, even though it ends quietly and lacks the earlier work's delight in virtuoso display (while still sharing its appetite for sardonic humor).

Schiff's playing is stupendous, perhaps marginally less intense than Rostropovich in the First concerto, but even more cogent and concentrated in the Second. There are too many praiseworthy moments to even begin listing them all. The First concerto's second movement, taken as a genuine Moderato, and the hallucinatory climax of the Second concerto's finale, are just two examples. Neither Schiff nor the composer's son puts a foot wrong. The orchestra sounds terrific (fine solo horn contributions), and the engineering is similarly excellent, with ideal balances and plenty of detail. Without doubt this is one of the landmarks in the Shostakovich discography. [10/9/2006]

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
https://www.amazon.com/Shostakovich-Cello-Concertos-Cellokonzerte-Nr/dp/B000EBD85E
https://www.amazon.com/Shostakovich-Cello-Concertos-Nos-Dmitri/dp/B00000E2T5

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Dmitri Shostakovich (25 September 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Russian composer and pianist, and a prominent figure of 20th-century music. Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the government. Shostakovich's music is characterized by sharp contrasts, elements of the grotesque, and ambivalent tonality; the composer was also heavily influenced by the neo-classical style pioneered by Igor Stravinsky, and (especially in his symphonies) by the post-Romanticism associated with Gustav Mahler.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Shostakovich

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Heinrich Schiff (born 18 November 1951 – 23 December 2016) is an Austrian cellist and conductor. He studied cello with Tobias Kühne and André Navarra and made his solo debut in Vienna and London in 1971. He studied conducting with Hans Swarovsky and made his conducting debut in 1986. Schiff plays the "Mara" Stradivarius (1711) and "Sleeping Beauty" made by Montagnana in Venice in 1739. Among his students are Rudi Spring, Gautier Capuçon, Richard Harwood and Natalie Clein.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Schiff

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