For CPO this disc represents a voyage into the rare territory
of near-standard repertoire. Given their deserved success championing
the deeply obscure there must be significant reasons for changing
a business model that has worked so well. Good though these
performances are I am not sure they are so special to command
such a change of tack.
Of the six Shostakovich concertos the two for piano represent
some of his simplest - in the best sense - and most abstract
come absolute music. There is none of the biographical or subjective
associations that haunt the four string works. The Piano Concerto
No.1, together with the Symphony No.1, remains the most popular
and regularly programmed - on disc and in concert - of Shostakovich’s
early work. Checking the Opus numbers shows that it was written
in the middle of a busy period producing music for stage and
screen. Shostakovich was still very much the darling of the
Soviet establishment and this is reflected in a score that is
quirky, sombre, riotous and colourful by turns. There are none
of the sour tragedy-haunted passages that stalk the main works
post the “muddle instead of music” denouncement
a few years in the future. This was one of the works Decca included
on their “The Jazz Album” from Riccardo Chailly
with the pianist Ronald Brautigam accompanied by the Concertgebouw
Orchestra. That is a smashing performance and a thoroughly enjoyable
disc but this work has nothing to do with jazz. Burlesque, cabaret
and a Keystone Cop-esque madcap humour for sure.
An interesting aspect the performance here underlines is a certain
neo-classicism which I must admit have never struck me before.
This CPO performance has many virtues - the greatest of these
is the coolly clean and articulate technique of both pianist
Valentina Igoshina and the orchestra - the Deutsche Kammerakademie
Neuss. All the players perform with a super-neat virtuosity
which allied to a vibrant energy makes these hugely impressive
performances. Igoshina’s technique and approach is focused
on producing a performance (of both concertos) that is more
emotionally detached than is often heard. The more I listened
to these performances the more I felt this was a very valid
and convincing approach. The first concerto in particular does
require virtuosity but emotionally both works rather flag if
over-weighted with ‘feeling’. I am not sure I have
ever heard the slow movement of the lovely second concerto played
with such serene grace or simplicity. The excellent CPO recording
helps greatly throughout but especially here where the orchestral
strings float the gentlest bed of lyrical support over which
the piano quietly muses. The music feels more poignant
and affecting for the purity of its utterance.
Returning to the first concerto there is - of course - a co-conspirator
in Shostakovich’s subversive entertainment; the solo trumpet.
Here it is Thomas Hammes, the principal trumpet of the Stuttgart
RSO. He is predictably excellent with technique to spare, but
crucially I find the personality of his contribution lacking.
In my mind’s ear the function of the trumpet in this work
is to comment - usually ironically - on the other music. To
this end I find Hammes simply too straight - take the popular
tune given to the trumpet in the final movement (track 4 approximately
3:00) - here it is played with an almost classical correctness
which seems totally at odds with the music around it. Just a
minute or so earlier the players have brilliantly brought off
one of Shostakovich’s quirkiest effects which always sounds
to me as if the speed of the playback machine is being increased
- after that tour de force Hammes’ ‘little tune’
falls flat like a dull joke. The second concerto was written
for the composer’s son Maxim to perform. How brilliant
of Shostakovich to avoid any temptation to - in the modern parlance
- dumb-down his music. So what we have here is simple without
being simplistic and transparent without lacking musical weight.
As mentioned before Igoshina pitches her performance to perfection
feeling no need to over-interpret. She allows the music to speak
for itself and as such it emerges as one of the composer’s
consistently happiest and good-natured works - this is a delightful
performance from chirpy beginning to rumbustious end.
All the music on this disc benefits from the chamber scale of
the orchestra; just seven first violins and five seconds for
example, particularly when performed with the panache they do
here. I so enjoy Igoshina’s objective approach that when
she does pull the tempo around as in a rather fussy take on
the 2nd concerto’s first movement cadenza it
rather jars but overall her playing is very impressive indeed.
The coupling of these two works on CD always leaves room for
a filler - which may determine which of many fine versions the
collector will buy. Here with have a relative rarity - the suite
of incidental music from the 1932 stage production of Hamlet.
This is not to be confused with one of Shostakovich’s
greatest film scores - the 1963 Hamlet Op.116. The stage
Hamlet shares with the other early incidental music scores a
kaleidoscopic variety of moods from dramatic to wildly comic
to powerfully serious. I say relatively rare because the complete
score was available on Cala performed by Mark Elder and the
CBSO and the same suite as here on Olympia from Eduard Serov
and the Leningrad Chamber Orchestra. There is a current competitor
in the catalogue couple with the 15th Symphony from
Pletnev on Pentatone. I have not heard the latter and the comparison
with Elder is not that valid given the different music. Curiously,
the very clarity and control that so benefits the concerti makes
the German orchestra sound rather prim compared to the gaudy
grease paint of their Soviet rivals on Olympia. Again the CPO
recording scores full marks for balance, detail and warmth and
the playing is a miracle of accuracy - track 8 ‘The Hunt’
is sparklingly brilliant. The liner calls this suite the ‘Original
Version 1932’ but I do not have a clue what that means
since I am not aware there is any other possible version!
On the matter of the liner; one rarely sits down with a CPO
liner for a jolly good read. Even by their own stodgy and lumpen
standards this is a very poorly translated booklet. Inverted
commas are (mis)used with spectacular frequency. They don’t
get off to a good start; ‘Shostakovich, the genial Russian
composer from St. Petersburg’. I am not sure I have every
heard him described as “genial”. On the first page
alone quotation marks are used eight times - incorrectly in
every case. But to dwell on those minor annoyances would be
to diminish the qualities of this fine disc. You do have to
return to my initial question; why did CPO choose to release
this into an already crowded market? At the upper mid-price
price point the competition is very strong indeed and for all
its merits I am not sure I could direct collectors to this version
at this price before all others but with its interesting coupling
and persuasively lucid approach I could imagine there being
many satisfied purchasers.
Nick Barnard
Valentina Igoshina (piano); Thomas Hammes (trumpet) 