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This particular sequence
of works has become almost popular.
There are identical couplings on Arte
Nova (Kyrill Rodin) and on Olympia (Marina
Tarasova). The two sonatas and the concerto
produce a respectably-filled CD. The
grouping has all the merits of a single
composer collection.
The two sonatas come
from opposite ends of Miaskovsky's career.
The Op. 12 work is pre-Revolutionary,
from 1911, and is akin to the Rachmaninov
sonata at one moment and to the Delius
at the next. Both Cellos Classics players
have a good feel for dynamics and variety.
Rudin's purple tone is ample and rich
in damask and satin. The long, freely
liberated line and the hat-doffing to
Rachmaninov remain in place for the
Second Sonata from 1949 - the year of
Miaskovsky's death. This has a typically
generous-hearted theme instinct with
melancholy, fibrously singing qualities,
elegiac feeling, tender dreaminess (andante)
and hectic virtuosity unleashing a lyrically-driven
passion. The Second Sonata was written
for Rostropovich who premiered it on
5 March 1949 and later recorded it for
Melodiya. The latter is included along
with Rostropovich's recordings of the
First Sonata and the Cello Concerto
on EMI's now deleted 'Russian Years'
box.
Kyrill Rodin (Arte
Nova) takes a minute longer than Rudin
but this approach works well enough.
Andrei Pisarev is an extremely accomplished
accompanist; very much the equal partner
in his grasp of the tenderness required.
They both produce a fine reading of
the nostalgie of the Second Sonata.
Tarasova at 22.51 laps up every opportunity
to coax and dwell on the detail in the
First Sonata. This continues into the
Second Sonata at 23.51. Their approach
may well appeal although the ambience
of Studio 5, Moscow Radio makes the
piano sound boxy.
The Cello Concerto
was written between the years 1938 and
1944. It bridges the Stalinist years
between the Berlin-Moscow Axis and Operation
Barbarossa when, buoyed by Blitzkrieg
victories elsewhere, Hitler turned on
his 'ally'. By 1944 the Soviets had
taken the war into German and Berlin
awaited.
The Concerto is in
two movements: Lento ma non troppo
and Allegro vivace - the
arc of the work is essentially slow-fast-slow,
rather like the Delius and Moeran violin
concertos, the latter a contemporary
of this Miaskovsky concerto. Another
work, occasionally hinted at, is one
of Bax's least successful - his Cello
Concerto.
The orchestra for the
Miaskovsky is to exactly the same specification
as that for Brahms' First Piano Concerto.
Indeed Brahms' autumnal mood and his
monumentalism can be heard from time
to time as in the second movement at
14.03.
The Concerto was written
for Sviatoslav Knushevitsky a cellist
from the generation just prior to Shafran
(who stayed at home) and Rostropovich
(who travelled). Rostropovich it was
who gave the Miaskovsky Cello Concerto
international wings. His recording was
made with Sargent and the Philharmonia
(EMI Matrix 20 - 7243 5 65419 2 4).
More of that anon.
Rudin plays the Concerto
with utmost poetic tenderness and without
any sense of mere noodling; listen to
the transition at 6.54. After the nightingale
elegies of the first movement we come
to a more energetic episode however
the propulsive energy is largely carried
by the chattering orchestra (woodwind
and strings). The cello line is always
prone to the elegiac strain and soon
Miaskovsky returns to the magnetic pull
exercised by the songful slowness of
sweetened loss. He largely dispels this
as at 4.13 and 7.26 (echoes of the Dvořák)
but that tawny singing core remains
omnipresent. It is no surprise that
the work ends in unequivocal contentment
- sunlight radiating kindly through
a honeyed mist and dappled leaves. The
composer treads that fine and slippery
line between sentiment and sentimentality.
The competition for
the Cello Concerto comes from several
sources - some now deleted. Julian Lloyd
Webber recorded the work in 1991 for
Philips with none other than Maxim Shostakovich.
This was on 434 106-2. The London Symphony
Orchestra are put through their paces
at an extended pace. This gives 12.49
and 19.08 as against Rudin's 11.09 and
18.52; not much of a difference in the
second movement. The orchestra has a
bigger sound than on the Rudin version.
It is a very refined and slender thing,
By contrast Rudin’s tenderness is mixed
with a sense of blood and sinew and
flesh.
The Sargent and Rostropovich
version is even quicker than Rudin's
and still sounds pretty good for March
1956 ADD. This clocks in at 10.58 and
16.58 and has that vintage ebony and
quicksilver cello tone that is such
a Rostropovich hallmark. If you like
your Miaskovsky fleet of foot then this
is for you. The downside is that the
sun-basking repose of the final pages
is diluted somewhat. I wish I could
have compared this with Rostropovich's
‘Russian Years' recording. It's a set
I have been looking for at the right
price.
DG recorded Rostropovich
pupil, Mischa Maisky in the Cello Concerto
in 1996 with the Russian National Orchestra
conducted by Mikhail Pletnev. This is
on 449 821-2. The Concerto recording
times out at 29.41; about the same as
Rudin. Maisky's reading blazes with
character and bids fair to be the best
going. The DG recording captures the
orchestral canvas and the solo instrument
with impact. The Russian orchestra's
Slav ‘signature’ is still there - not
quite as vibrant as it used to be, diluted
somewhat by cosmopolitan practice and
instruments but still clear.
The most recent and
current version is the one from Chandos
coupled with the last Miaskovsky Symphony,
the Twenty-Seventh. There the soloist
is Chandos regular, Alexander Ivashkin.
He is joined by Valery Polyansky in
a glowingly burnished and autumnally
coloured performance - all damasks and
sable. Polyansky's readings defy his
teachers' proclivities (Oddissey Dimitriade
turned in at least one very fine Glazunov
recording and Rozhdestvensky's exuberant
music-making is always rewarding). Polyansky,
by contrast, tends towards the rhapsodic
or slow=soulful school. Some of his
Glazunov symphony offerings have suffered
accordingly. On the other hand his Chandos
recording of the Taneyev symphonies
is outstanding (CHAN 9998). Here he
takes two more minutes than Rudin and
Maisky. I have to say that the whole
thing sounds gorgeous when contemplative
(and there is a lot of that mood) but
a shade steady-as-she-goes when meant
to be vibrant. Ivashkin responds in
kind and the final few minutes which
has the cello trilling away like an
echo of the finale of Bax Symphony No.
7 works undeniably well. This is the
most emotional recording of this work
ever.
If the Philips recording
of Lloyd Webber gives the impression
of dwelling peacefully on every note
what will you make of the Arte Nova
with exactly the same coupling as Cello
Classics. This Rodin (Arte Nova) version
plays for 36.49 ... an incredible seven
minutes longer than Rudin and almost
ten minutes more than Rostropovich.
Rodin's vibrato in the final pages is
less effective than the sustained pure
tone of the competing versions and does
not move in the same way as Ivashkin's
on Chandos.
The Tarasova was issued
as Olympia OCD 530. Her version of the
Concerto with the Moscow New Opera Orchestra
conducted by Yevgeny Samoilov is on
the fast side at 27.54 if not quite
as quick on its heels as Rostropovich
and Sargent. Tarasova is well attuned
to the soulful core of this work but
also aware of the need for forward movement.
Where she is at a disadvantage is in
the raw unassimilated tone of the orchestra.
She is not as nimble as, and is more
effortfully angular in her delivery
than, Rudin, Rodin or Rostropovich.
This is a good performance, doing no
disservice to Miaskovsky, but she is
out-pointed by the best of the competition.
Rudin’s Cello Classics
recording is agreeably transparent:
listen to the pizzicato at 2.15 in the
allegro vivace of the Concerto.
This recording is also satisfyingly
documented by Andrew Stewart.
All I would wish to
emphasise is that Miaskovsky is not
all about elegies and autumns.
The Cello Concerto is chronologically
bracketed by two of Miaskovsky's finest
works - the Symphonies 24 and 25 both
of which achieve the highest order of
heroic symphonic expression.
The favourite version
of this coupling.
Rob Barnett
Cello
Concerto
Ivashkin - Chandos
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Nov02/miask27vc.htm
Rodin - Arte Nova
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/Apr99/mias.htm
Tarasova - Regis
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/July01/Miaskovsky.htm
see also
Nikolai
MIASKOVSKY A Survey of the Chamber
Works, Orchestral Music and Concertos
on Record By JONATHAN WOOLF
Alexander Rudin (cello) 