At first sight this pair of discs would seem to promise little.
A soloist who is not exactly an international name, paired with
Eastern Bloc orchestra (well the concerto recordings are from
1985 so the epithet fits) and with the recordings spanning twenty-four
years would not appear to bode well for a coherent and compelling
musical argument. Yet this is exactly what we get. Before I spotted
the widely spaced recording dates my listening notes had highlighted
the unanimity and cogency of cellist Viviane Spanoghe’s approach.
So three cheers to her for consistency of her vision and to the
company Talent for releasing these performances in a single package.
I don’t think that I have seen the four major Shostakovich cello
works coupled together like this – it works tremendously well.
The last work is, of course, Daniil Shafran’s transcription of
Shostakovich final Opus the
Sonata for Viola which did
not receive it’s premiere until after the composer’s death. Talking
of Shafran, I
recently reviewed for this site an excellent remastering of
one of his several versions of the
Cello Sonata ‘proper’
which was quite superb. So Spanoghe is up against stern competition
yet she emerges with great distinction. Hers is a very different
approach from Shafran. This is a performance which shows the debt
Shostakovich owed to more traditional Western models. Is does
not have the biting cynicism of Shafran – gleeful malice is how
I described part of his recording. Instead Spanoghe emphasises
the intense lyricism of much of the work. The grief of the third
movement is transformed in something less overtly tear-laden.
Not that I would want to be without Shafran’s account but this
is equally valid if not as idiomatic. But where Spanoghe scores
heavily – as mentioned above is the way this work is placed in
her vision of Shostakovich’s creative life. Having the four pieces
together like this allowed me to listen to them in order of composition.
Listening in that way to these particular performances proved
to be a compelling and moving experience as they are almost biographical
in the way they mark the arc of Shostakovich’s life and work.
The early sonata dates from 1934 and so for all its foreboding
it was written when Shostakovich’s star was rising in the Soviet
firmament. By the time of the
Cello Concerto No.1 of 1959
he had survived the Stalinist purges but the music of this marvellous
concerto is an odd amalgam of defiant individualism (obsessing
as it does on a variant of his DSCH motto) and sour sorrow. Death
haunts the
Cello Concerto No.2 of 1966 which continues
into the frozen final
Viola Sonata which in its final echoes
of the Beethoven
Moonlight Sonata finds some kind of acceptance
if not tranquillity.
The biographical power of this extraordinary journey is superbly
defined by Spanoghe and her collaborators. Pianist André de Groote
is an exceptional partner. Sixteen years separate the recordings
of the two sonatas but again continuity is the key. The producer
has brought the piano quite forward on the sound stage but the
balance is convincing. Try the beginning of the Op.147 sonata.
Spanoghe’s tone is bleached and exhausted and de Groote tiptoes
around this fragile failing creature. Yet the sudden outburst
as the movement progresses is arrestingly passionate. Don’t get
me wrong – Spanoghe is not the technically most polished player
you will ever hear in these works. Far from it – there are moments
in each work when clearly her (still considerable) technique is
tested to the limit. All have instances of suspect intonation
and fractional loss of control. Yet in works as intensely autobiographical
as these this human fallibility adds to the narrative. I also
enjoy the way she sacrifices safety and caution for the greater
good of projecting her vision. What an oddly elusive work this
late sonata is, full of allusions and illusions as so much of
Shostakovich’s later music is. I have never read an absolutely
convincing explanation for these ‘backward glances’. The 2
nd
movement
Allegretto feels like a combination of a kind
of heavy footed Cossack dance in a ballroom – a fusion of the
clumsy and the refined. Yet contradictions both musical and ideological
lie at the heart of Shostakovich’s greatness. I do know the late
sonata in its original form but I have to say that this version
has impacted on my consciousness far more than the original. Shafran
in his transcription has made few registrational changes but where
they are it allows the guttural gruffness to impact to great effect.
Also, by leaving much of the high passage work at the original
pitch it adds to the technical complexity of the work for the
player and in some tangible way increases the ‘theatre’ of the
work. Additionally, in that range the cello’s voice cuts through
textures in a way the viola cannot hope to replicate. Conversely
it could be argued that other passages benefit from the more muted
intimate musings of the alto voice. I find the final movement
of this sonata extraordinarily powerful. The allusions to the
Beethoven
Moonlight Sonata are barely veiled but the choice
if baffling. Shostakovich’s admiration for the older composer
is well documented but why choose such an ‘obvious’ work to pay
homage? Obviously knowing that this was his last completed opus
adds to the poignancy but it remains a magnificent work. The finale
(CD 1 track 7) is a fourteen minute
Adagio. After an initial
sad solo musing from the cello, the piano enters with a figuration
so well known from the Beethoven. It is not a direct quote as
Shostakovich did in his
Symphony No.15 of Rossini and Wagner
but there is little attempt to hide the kinship. Spanoghe sings
the melody line with superb checked emotional conviction only
the occasional double stopping causing momentary technical discomfort.
De Groote’s piano playing is serene and resonant. As the movement
progresses the music gradually moves away from the Beethovenian
source – perhaps the final severing of ties and walking out toward
the unknown region where – to quote Whitman – “when the ties loosen,
all but the ties eternal, Time and Space, nor darkness, gravitation,
sense, nor any bounds bounding us”. Pure fancy on my behalf of
course but that is the image this music conjures. There is a final
motivic return to the Beethoven before the music is pared away
and with a gentle rocking figure the piece fades into eternity.
An extraordinary moment of acceptance and peace. As I said I find
this performance to be so sincere, so compelling in the musical
choices the performers make that I would trade a hundred more
technical failings to hear it.
I have yet to say anything about the two extraordinary concertos
the two sonatas frame. The
Cello Concerto No.1 is probably
the most popular 20
th Century Cello concerto along
with the Elgar. Spanoghe proves to be as wholly convincing and
committed in this work as she is in the Sonatas. This is too great
a work to say any single performance is definitive but to ignore
the Rostropovich recordings would be brave indeed. Spanoghe is
not his technical equal but again her choices are excellent. Generally
tempi fall well within the average range but I hear Spanoghe’s
identification and commitment to the work in every bar. And in
this she is helped greatly by the playing of the Sofia Soloists
Symphony Orchestra under conductor Emil Tabakov. This title sounds
suspiciously like a pick-up recording orchestra – indeed I can’t
find them listed on the web anywhere else (a cursory search I
must admit) but then again so was the National Philharmonic Orchestra
in the UK and what amazing recordings they made! The orchestra
are superb, full of character and actually rather well recorded.
In both concertos they make the most of Shostakovich’s quirky
scoring. Try the very opening of the 1
st Concerto.
I’m not sure on disc that I have heard the riotous duet between
the piccolo and the pawky contra-bassoon register so well. Indeed
through this disc the woodwind characterisation is first rate.
Likewise, the strings are willing to give the work all the venomous
attack it often demands. Some might find the prominent horn part
not quite to their taste. It is not of the old iron-curtain school
of horn playing but neither is it Western-mellow either. To be
honest I would rather have more rasp from the pair of horns in
the 2
nd Concerto where they have a sequence of manic
chasing roulades but that is a question of taste and degree –
there is nothing ‘wrong’ with the playing here. Even by Shostakovich’s
standard the ending of the 2
nd Concerto is highly individual.
I seem to remember reading elsewhere it was a musical representation
of the machines in the hospital keeping him alive after a heart
attack. I’ve no idea if that is true but it certainly tickers
and clicks away into the distance before a final ‘I’m still here!’
rasp from the soloist. Spanoghe plays the cadenzas in both concertos
with total identification and utter abandonment to the music.
Again there are technical wobbles but I love it. Quite why the
2
nd concerto has never attained anything like the popularity
of the 1
st is down to the more elusive nature of its
musical moods – the 1
st contains some of the most assertive
and confident music Shostakovich ever wrote – certainly in the
outer movements at least.
So I come back to my initial assertion that this programme works
far better than it has any right to! All of the credit for that
must surely lie with Viviane Spanoghe and the pure continuity
and conviction of her musical vision. Clearly she is well aided
on this journey – and a journey it really is – by her collaborators
and discreetly high quality engineering. The continuity and balance
achieved between three venues and 24 years (oh yes and 2 different
cellos too – the 1670 Rugeri used for the Sonatas disc is gorgeous)
is little short of remarkable. I’ve heard sessions recorded on
consecutive days with more changeable balance issues! Credit for
this would seem to lie with one Ronald Dom who has production
credits for each session. I see his name is also the CD number
so perhaps he has a particular link to this artist and this is
a licensed release. One tiny blot – a brief and fairly useless
liner note from which we learn that “Shostakovich is[?] the only
Soviet composer of his generation to achieve international recognition”.
A tad tough on Khachaturian, Kabalevsky, and Prokofiev to name
but three!
Many thanks to Talent/Ronald Dom for re-releasing(?) these recordings
– music making as it should surely be; powerful, humane and utterly
compelling.
Nick Barnard
Viviane Spanoghe (cello); André de Groote (piano) 
