19th Century Russian Cello Music
Pyotr Il’yich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Variations on a Rococo Theme in A major, Op.33 (original version for cello and piano) (1876-77) [18:43]
Karl Yul’evich DAVĪDOV (1838-1889)
Fantasy on Russian Songs, Op.7 (1860) [12:44]
Konstantin Nikolayevich LIADOV (1820-1871)
Fantasy on Gipsy Songs (c.1857) [8:17]
Anton Stepanovich ARENSKY (1861-1906)
Two Pieces, Op.12 (c.1887) [6:48]
Four Pieces, Op.56 (1901) [13:13]
Nikolay Andreyevich RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908)
Serenade, Op.37 (version for cello and piano) (1893) [4:00]
Dmitrii Khrychev (cello)
Olga Solovieva (piano)
rec. 2018, Studio 1 of the Russian State TV & Radio Company KULTURA, Moscow, Russia
World premičre recordings except Arensky
NAXOS 8.573951 [64:06]
It is said that you learn something (new) every day, and often I learn several. Today I have learned that the version of Tchaikovsky’s famous Variations on a Rococo Theme that I have always known was not the original version as conceived by the composer; it was one by its dedicatee, Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, Tchaikovsky’s friend and the work’s first performer. Fitzenhagen, a professor at the Moscow Conservatoire, liked the work well enough to include it in his concert performances but he obviously did not think it ‘showy’ enough to highlight his virtuosity. He set about making an arrangement which – as I discovered in the liner notes – amounted almost to a complete rewrite. His version for both cello with piano and for cello with orchestra were the versions published in Tchaikovsky’s lifetime. One can only imagine how Tchaikovsky must have felt… His friend, to whom he had dedicated the work, thought so little of the original to be moved, as the notes explain, to alter the cello part so it becomes more virtuosic for concert performances, reorder the variations, eliminate the eighth and last altogether, and rewrite the finale.
Until the mid-20th century, only Fitzenhagen’s versions were performed. This recording of the original version for cello and piano is its world premičre, and I find it utterly astonishing. The piano score used here only had been published as late as 1973! For me, this original version enables the work to emerge from its overly showy shadow into the light as a much more deeply felt piece, with a grace the better known version was shorn of. From the first notes there is a delicacy, nay, even a certain fragility that seems missing in the more familiar version. It is a fascinating experience to hear a work you think you know in a completely different light. I always enjoyed the version I grew up with but I have felt far more emotionally involved with the original version. Tchaikovsky was a tortured soul. I think that there are glimpses here revealed in a way that Fitzenhagen’s version eliminated in its attempt to create a work that better showed off his talents.
Karl Davīdov, as the liner notes explain, was one of the greatest cellists of the 19th century. His Fantasy on Russian Songs was a great vehicle to showcase his undoubted talents. He wrote it when he was both a professor at the Leipzig Conservatoire and first cellist in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Russians are renowned for their feelings of homesickness. This work was motivated by Davīdov’s longing to be back home. Indeed, he later became one of the first professors at the St Petersburg Conservatoire, where he rose to become its director for eleven years from 1876. The Fantasy uses several songs popular at the time Davīdov was in Germany. The longing for home is evident throughout the work.
The Fantasy on Gipsy Songs by Konstantin Liadov, father of the more famous Anatoly, brings another popular genre into focus. One must say, though, that gipsy songs were so much part of popular culture in Russia that it is often difficult to firmly identify when a song can be claimed as Gipsy rather than Russian or vice versa, for the edges are often blurred. Popular songs and melodies are fascinating in particular for they cross many boundaries, including national ones, to the extent that influences from different cultures can be discerned seemingly woven into several genres whether they be Russian, Gipsy, Romanian, Bulgarian Jewish and so on. Europe was always, and continues to be a melting pot, and in music this process has always enriched it. Liadov’s work is a lovely example of the reworking of some Gipsy songs that merge Russian themes into them.
Anton Arensky’s six short pieces, first two then four, are once again brilliantly showy examples of 19th century cello writing. It enabled cellists to really demonstrate their talents in flamboyant performances in the concert hall, and their ability to use their instrument to tug at the heartstrings (as numbers 2 and 3 of the Four Pieces do). These six little gems are the only pieces on the disc that were already on record. All the other works receive their world premičre recordings. That includes the cello and piano version of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Serenade, the original from which the more well-known version for cello and orchestra was made.
The choice of repertoire on this disc really does showcase the cello’s ability to be serious, capricious, humorous, nostalgic and tragic. One finds here beautifully sonorous music by some 19th century masters of the genre. The original version of Tchaikovsky’s work is reason enough to listen to it for a revelatory experience of a work you thought you knew. Both performers are selling the product with nicely balanced performances, and the engineers deliver a great sound – so plaudits all round!
Steve Arloff
