RACHMANINOV; SHOSTAKOVICH; DENISOV Cello Sonatas
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Sergey Rachmaninov, Dmitri Shostakovich, Edison (Vasil'yevich) Denisov
Genre:
Chamber
Label: Alpha
Magazine Review Date: 01/2020
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 78
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ALPHA547
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Sonata for Cello and Piano |
Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer
Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer Jonas Vitaud, Piano Victor Julien-Laferrière, Cello |
Variations on Schubert's theme |
Edison (Vasil'yevich) Denisov, Composer
Edison (Vasil'yevich) Denisov, Composer Jonas Vitaud, Piano Victor Julien-Laferrière, Cello |
Author: Richard Bratby
Twentieth-century Russia left cellists spoilt for choice: a player who wants to record a sonata disc can choose from bona fide masterpieces by Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, with Stravinsky’s Suite italienne as a filler. Hats off, then, to the young French cellist Victor Julien-Laferrière (winner of the 2017 Queen Elisabeth Competition) for eschewing the obvious and pairing his blockbusters with the much rarer Variations on a Theme by Schubert by Edison Denisov, written in 1986, though you wouldn’t guess it.
More of that in a moment; for now, the disc opens with a performance of Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata which, if neither the weightiest nor the most brilliant on disc, yields to no one in pure musicality. Julien-Laferrière has a Gallic tone in the best possible sense: focused and nimble, capable of intense sweetness (the second subject of the first movement positively melts) but robed in genuine warmth of sound, and alert to Shostakovich’s humour as well as his darkness. After a lyrical first movement, the Scherzo is a little whirlwind. Pianist Jonas Vitaud brings clarity and verve to the finale: the two are absolutely on the same page and their intimacy and give-and-take sound utterly unforced.
The Denisov is a curious piece: more of an extended fantasy than a set of variations on Schubert’s A flat Impromptu, with Julien-Laferrière searching and sure-footed in Denisov’s generally high-lying writing. You can probably already imagine how this all adds up to a fresh, expressive and wonderfully lyrical account of the Rachmaninov Sonata. If one might perhaps have hoped for a slightly more opulent sound from Vitaud, it hardly seems to matter in the face of such generous and communicative music-making.
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