Sergei Prokofiev; Nikolai Myaskovsky - Cello Concertos (Mischa Maisky)

Information

Composer: Sergei Prokofiev; Nikolai Myaskovsky

• (01) Prokofiev - Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 125
• (04) Myaskovsky - Cello Concerto, Op. 66

Mischa Maisky, cello

Russian National Orchestra

Mikhail Pletnev, conductor

Date: 1996

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/prokofiev-miaskovsky-maisky-656

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Review

This issue offers two masterpieces in performances and recordings that can more than hold their own against competition both past and present. Both works come from the mid-1940s, the Prokofiev being a reworking of the E minor Cello Concerto, Op. 58, that he had conceived but not completed while he was living in the West in the early-1930s. Miaskovsky’s Cello Concerto (1944-5) is full of an all-pervasive nostalgia, a longing for a world lost beyond recall. In sensibility it is in some ways close to the Elgar, for it has something of the same all-consuming elegiac feeling. Don’t be deceived by the apparent blandness of the opening of the second movement (articulated with the greatest lightness by these players); there is more pain in this music than at first appears. By the side of Prokofiev, Miaskovsky seems born out of his time, but both composers have that authenticity of feeling which makes their music reach out to audiences. In sheer fertility of melodic invention or force of personality, Miaskovsky may not be the equal of Prokofiev but come to think of it, there aren’t many twentieth-century composers who are! Prokofiev first called the piece “Concerto No. 2”, only changing it afterwards to its present title. Even so, some element of uncertainty persisted, since he did not disown the earlier concerto but ended up describing the new piece as “a reworking of the material of the first, made in collaboration with Mstislav Rostropovich”.

The present catalogues do not list either of Rostropovich’s western recordings with Sargent (EMI, 1/59) and Ozawa (Erato, 1/89) though there is a mono Russian Disc made in Leningrad in the year of its completion (1947). If, like me, you have found Mischa Maisky all too prone to wear his heart on his sleeve (his heady Bach solo suites – DG, 4/86 – drip heavily with emotion), you can breathe a sigh of relief here as in neither work does this gushing quality intrude. The innately aristocratic feeling the Russian National Orchestra exhibit and the classical finesse that Pletnev commands ensures a wonderfully balanced reading. In both works Pletnev and his players are fastidious in observing scrupulously all the dynamic and agogic markings. I have never heard the Prokofiev sonority better served and its characteristically sardonic bite and wit emerge more potently.

Miaskovsky’s beautiful and more lightly scored concerto first appeared in western catalogues in Rostropovich’s eloquent 1956 recording with Sir Malcolm Sargent. This sounds remarkably good even now, and more recently to his credit Julian Lloyd Webber championed its cause on Philips at a time when most other bows were silent. It happens to be one of my favourite concertos which I often play for pleasure. Now it is to this version that I shall be turning not only for the sake of Maisky’s committed advocacy but for the unforced eloquence which Pletnev and his orchestra bring to this score. The DG recording gives Maisky an appropriate prominence without ever masking the orchestral detail. An outstanding coupling.

-- Robert Layton, Gramophone

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Sergei Prokofiev (23 April, 1891–March 5, 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous genres, he was one of the major composers of the 20th century. Prokofiev wrote seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, a symphony-concerto for cello and orchestra, and nine completed piano sonatas, many of which are widely known and heard. He also enjoyed personal and artistic support from a new generation of Russian performers, notably Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Prokofiev

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Nikolai Myaskovsky (20 April [O.S. 8 April] 1881 – 8 August 1950) was a Russian and Soviet composer. He is sometimes referred to as the "Father of the Soviet Symphony". Myaskovsky wrote a total of 27 symphonies (plus three sinfoniettas, three concertos and works in other orchestral genres), 13 string quartets, 9 piano sonatas as well as many miniatures and vocal works. He is professor of composition at Moscow Conservatory from 1921 until his death, and há an important influence on his pupils. His students include big names such as  Aram Khachaturian, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Rodion Shchedrin and Boris Tchaikovsky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Myaskovsky

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Mischa Maisky (born January 10, 1948 in Riga, Latvia) is a Soviet-born Israeli cellist. He was taught by Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory from 1966 to 1970, and won sixth prize at the  1966 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Maisky emigrated to Israel in 1972, and also studied with Gregor Piatigorsky in Los Angeles. Throughout his career, Maisky has worked with renowned artists and conductors such as Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer and Leonard Bernstein, among many others. He also performs with his children Sascha, a violinist, and Lily Maisky, a classical pianist.

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

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