Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Complete Piano Works – Volume 2
Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 12 (1926)
Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 61 (1943)
Children’s Notebook, Op. 69 (1944–1945)
Murzilka (ca. 1944)
Variations on a Theme by M. I. Glinka (1957) *
Eugenio Catone (piano)
rec. 2021, Auditorium Adele Solimene, Palazzo Capone, Montella, Italy
* co-written with other composers – see review
STRADIVARIUS STR37224 [57]
The second volume in pianist Eugenio Catone’s survey of Shostakovich’s piano music runs hard on the heels of his first, which included pellucid readings of the composer’s Aphorisms and various juvenilia. This present release revolves around the two piano sonatas, where discographic competition is tougher.
Catone’s view of the enigmatic Piano Sonata No. 2 is cool, aloof; the running sixteenth notes in the opening movement portending nothing beyond their undulating murmur. His tempi for the most part are strict, rubati are sparingly employed. Even at points where the music seems to invite the performer to dig a little deeper or linger a little longer, such as the transition from exposition to development in the “Allegro” or the climax that follows, Catone cruises by unfazed. The subsequent “Largo” flows along liltingly, almost like a café waltz; its ghostly, Scriabinesque harmonies flit by without any sense for how exceptional these are in Shostakovich’s mature work. Likewise, the theme and variations finale sounds unusually serene here. Radiance and expressive restraint, rather than unsettling darkness, are this performance’s cornerstones. I have never heard this sonata played like this, gracefully Apollonian, with Mozartian translucence and drollery—but is that really enough in this searching work?
On the surface, both Youri Egorov (Canal Grande, 1992) and Mikhail Voskresensky (Triton, 2000) take similar approaches to Catone in their respective recordings of the same sonata’s outer movements, yet manage to wrest more from them. Both Russians also take the central “Largo” slower, much to its benefit, in Egorov’s case by over two minutes. What in Catone’s hands had seemed a wan pas de deux is here revealed as death-haunted introspection, an eerie premonition of the composer’s late style. Voskresensky is a touch faster than Catone in the finale, but reveals inner details glossed over by the Italian, and lavishes great care on those rare moments when the music turns from contemplation to combustion. Catone, on the other hand, seems to view the finale and the whole sonata through the lens of Stravinsky’s neoclassicism, a counterpart to his Piano Sonata and Serenade in A.
His performance of the explosive Piano Sonata No. 1 is suave, impassive before its torrent of notes, which he navigates with ease as he seeks the infrequent eyes in this musical storm. If not the last word in revolutionary daring and sheer Lisztian power, his measured approach may make the sonata more palatable to listeners who shy away from Shostakovich’s brief modernist phase. Others wishing to hear the composer unleashed, however, would be advised to seek out the recordings by Lilya Zilberstein (Deutsche Grammophon, 1989), Anatoly Vedernikov (Denon, 2005), and Andrey Gugnin (Hyperion, 2019).
What remains on the rest of the program is minor Shostakovich, but delightful nonetheless. The Children’s Notebook and Murzilka have the right balance of play and poise, as does the performance of the Variations on a Theme by M. I. Glinka from 1957. Vissarion Shebalin, Rodion Shchedrin, Andrei Eshpai, Yuri Levitin, Georgy Sviridov, and Eugen Kapp each contributed at least one variation; Shostakovich’s share consists of the final four. As I mentioned in my review of Catone’s earlier volume of Shostakovich piano works, it is odd that a composer who in his youth had entertained the idea of being a traveling virtuoso should have composed comparatively little for his instrument, stranger still that his final piano work is a charming, if obscure piece of jobbery.
As in the first volume, Catone contributes the fine liner notes. The production by Emilio Cortano presents the pianist’s Bösendorfer 280VC in a gorgeous acoustic that is intimate without sounding too close.
Néstor Castiglione
