Worls for Piano and Piano (Wallfisch, York)

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
BBM 1032; BLACK BOX MUSIC - Inghilterra; Classica da camera Duo

AMAZON
The stormily hostile landscape on the cover of this recording of works for cello and piano and Schnittke and Shostkovich could not be more appropriate: as pianist John York observes in his excellent sleeve note, the three sonatas here reflect the Russian condition during the bleakest days of the later Soviet era. But the disc also contains two curiosities that stand outside that ambit: Shostakovich's Adagio is a ballet-suite number, which recalls the expansive warmth of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, and Schnittke's Moderato--a 1934 work rediscovered 50 years later--is a lyrical piece reflecting springtime hope, with a lack of any aesthetic pretension. But the real business here--beautifully played--consists of Shostakovich's final sonata, written for viola but very successfully transcribed for cello, plus Schnittke's two cello works. And while the elder composer's sonata radiates power and assurance, the younger man's works are more riveting. The first of those gracefully discordant, allowing the underlying anguish to surge out only intermittently; the second is a sort of musical abstraction, stark to the point of extinction. Its last high note on the cello is left hanging in the air: a plaint, a protest, an unanswered question. --Michael Church

Number of Discs: 1

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