To put lesser works
alongside the Everest of cello concertos
(Shostakovich Op.107) is a risk but
Vainberg’s sprawling four movement concerto
needs no towering penumbra to conceal
a rather weak piece. It is imitative
(forgivable) but how anyone could have
been interested enough to publish and
play such shallow music is beyond my
understanding. The moderately useful
insert notes - unascribed and with some
eccentric spelling - state that Vainberg
re-worked a 1948 concerto after the
appearance of the Shostakovich in 1959
and used the same format. Recycling
is a popular modern concept but when
one considers that he wrote 8 operas,
17 quartets and 27 symphonies it all
smacks of trade rather than art. There
are some ‘nice sounds’ as one would
expect from a well-trained musician
and some strategic Jewish themes which
seem more ironed-on than part of the
fabric so I stick to my view that this
concerto is perhaps just too second-rate
to stand alongside Shostakovich and
Levitine.
Yuri Levitin’s Concertino
is a complete contrast and is effectively
a cello concerto of outstanding merit.
I guess that he called it ‘concertino’
because the cello is integrated into
a small marvel of entrancing music,
albeit as long as many standard concertos.
The Ukrainian Jewish composer was a
pupil of Shostakovich in the 1930s and
a partner in poker games, doubtless
with vodka and American cigarettes which
his teacher loved. That said there is
little imitation apart from the unavoidable.
Levitin’s gift is in
orchestral texture and opening Allegretto
has luscious woodwind in layers and
some chattering. It’s all in wonderful
balance with the cello writing so sensitively
executed by Mark Dobrinsky with the
perfection we have come to expect from
him. The Andante has a suggestion
of the Shostakovich violin concerto
No.1 after a bold brass and woodwind
start. There are some atonal hints and
an astonishing economy of expression
as Levitin balances the woodwind against
the cello sonorities without falling
back on orchestral strings. This prefigures
many of the later developments we associate
with Baltic composers. The Moderato
has some earlier Shostakovich sarcasm
in the coda (9th symphony)
but it is Levitin all the way until
then. There are some amazing woodwind
with cello passages and, for 1961, some
new and very subtle serious writing
for brass. Borrowing a cheeky bit of
scherzo from his teacher he ends a remarkable
work in what is merely a compliment
to the Master.
The Shostakovich cello
concerto No.1 stands alongside his violin
concerto No.1, also in four movements,
but the 1948 violin concerto was written
in the Stalin era of post-war terror
in the Soviet Union. It intrigues me
that the cello concerto goes even farther
in wrist-slashing torture after the
jolly Allegretto based on the
famous DSCH sequence and its mirror
image which sounds Jewish. Perhaps careful
listening and history tell us why.
At this point it is
necessary to refer to Shostakovich’s
deep friendship with Ivan Solertinsky
when he was a young man. The famous
Piano Trio was written in memory of
his friend, who just happened to be
a Jew. Shostakovich was a middle class
native of Leningrad, not homosexual
- married twice with children - but
friendship and loyalty were essential
to him. He was precocious, never in
good health, had poor eyesight and was
as vulnerable as any to city life in
a generally oppressive and miserable
USSR.
I believe that his
interest in Jewish culture was in pursuit
of a tradition which the USSR had suppressed
in such as Slavonic folklore and Russian
Orthodox religion. By the time of the
Nazi siege of Leningrad Shostakovich
had taken his stand as a patriotic Russian
but sent his wife and children to safety.
He was then free to be a fireman in
the city and lived with various friends
who were mainly Jews still in the city
not least because Stalin was anti-Semitic;
Jews were seldom given passes out of
the cities. After the shocking revelation
of the Nazi extermination camps it must
have disgusted Shostakovich that Stalin
was at least equal to Hitler in pogroms
against the Jews, intellectuals, disabled
people and a long list of enemies of
the state. When Stalin died in 1953
- on the same day as Prokofiev - the
gloom of continuity in the Cold War
period helped to explain the music Shostakovich
wrote in the 1950s.
The cello concerto
No.1 is very economical with so much
to say but it’s not miserable or self-pitying
so much as accurate to the time. It
has the sparky ‘up yours’ defiance Shostakovich
often used. Profound is the word
and I place this cello concerto in the
Top Three concertos to date.
Mark Dobrinsky, this
time with the Kazan Symphony Orchestra
under Fuat Mansurov, takes the work
in a measured way and succeeds. There
are many famous performances but fame
and star quality too often confound
the personal and lonely quality of Op.107.
Better dynamics could have been achieved.
Other contenders are the award-winning
Naxos with Kliegel, Polish NRSO under
Antony Wit and a mysterious Regis issue,
now withdrawn, with a brilliant rendering
of the 15th symphony under
Konstantin Ivanov.
The cello concerto
No.1 was alleged to be by Daniil Shafran
but it seems that the ascribed personnel
were incorrect in a serious way. Sinaisky
conducted the Moscow Symphony Orchestra
on an earlier Chandos recording. A very
nice detective story for MWI readers
but, for my money, that version is a
nose ahead of all others and the 15th
symphony is up there with Slovak and
Ormandy (analogue).
The Russian State Cinematographic
Orchestra under Walter Mnatzakanov isn’t
exactly thrilling in terms of names
but just listen to the playing and famous
names will mean nothing. This applies
even in the egregious Vainberg which
is given the courtesy of excellent playing.
This interesting release by Classical
Talent/DOMUSIC of Antwerp squeezes three
cello concertos into a well packed 78
minute CD. The result is some over-compression
in the final work by Yuri Levitin. Tracking
the sample CD meant using slightly down-market
gear and the producers should, in my
view, have put the Moisei Vainberg concerto
last because losing bits of it would
be a blessing. The limited dynamics
of this disc only occur in the Levitine
work because compression is not to DOM
standards and MWI has subsequently been
informed that the master was not an
in-house recording such as DOM customarily
uses to excellent effect.
Summing up, this Talent
release shows integrity of intention
and is musically fine except for one
work. I hope that we get more from the
Antwerp company as long as a bit of
work is done on insert translations
in the process.
This is certainly a
CD to be praised if not highly recommended.
Stephen Hall
The
Talent Catalogue
for details
Mark Dobrinsky (cello) 
