Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1 & Cello Sonata

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

[Bertrand] wears the piece lightly, dancing rather than carving through it, with a silvery line that can be ghostly or piercing but never gruff…her bright, neat staccato is effective even if... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2013, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 8th Apr 2013
Catalogue No: HMC902142
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Length: 63 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

June 2013

Editor's Choice

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 107

Work length29:48

$4.40

$5.50

$8.00

Emmanuelle Bertrand, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Pascal Rophé

I. Allegretto

Track length6:22

$1.00

$1.25

$1.60

II. Moderato

Track length12:21

$1.40

$1.75

$3.20

III. Cadenza (Attacca)

Track length6:20

$1.00

$1.25

$1.60

IV. Finale (Allegro con moto)

Track length4:45

$1.00

$1.25

$1.60

Shostakovich: Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40

Work length29:52

$4.60

$5.75

$8.80

Emmanuelle Bertrand, Pascal Amoyel

I. Allegro non troppo

Track length12:47

$1.40

$1.75

$3.20

II. Allegro

Track length3:21

$1.00

$1.25

$1.60

III. Largo

Track length9:09

$1.20

$1.50

$2.40

IV. Allegro

Track length4:35

$1.00

$1.25

$1.60

Shostakovich: Moderato in A Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 40a

Work length3:22

$1.00

$1.25

$1.60

Emmanuelle Bertrand, Pascal Amoyel

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Here are two masterpieces for cello by Shostakovich, written 25 years apart. The insolent Sonata Op.40 of 1934, contemporary with 'Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District': the opera soon to plunge its composer into disgrace with Stalin, was answered in 1959 by the bitter self-questioning of an artist who seemed to have sunk into depression. This Cello Concerto ends with a wicked caricature of true joy, adding the final touch to the extreme polymorphism of a traumatised humourist who had long since learned not to laugh . . .

A passionate devotee of chamber music and member of the ensemble Les Violoncelles Français, Emmanuelle Bertrand has appeared in duo repertoire with the pianist Pascal Amoyel since 1999. Her harmonia mundi recordings as a soloist or in tandem with Amoyel have all received the most prestigious critical accolades in France and abroad, including the Cannes Classical Award, Diapason d’Or of the Year, 10 de Répertoire-Classica, Choc de Classica, and ffff de Télérama.

In 2014 she will give the first performance of Thierry Escaïch’s Cello Concerto.

Reviews

May 2013

[Bertrand] wears the piece lightly, dancing rather than carving through it, with a silvery line that can be ghostly or piercing but never gruff…her bright, neat staccato is effective even if climaxes lack heft…The BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Pascal Rophe, however, really does dance on hot coals and give the requisite blast…[the Moderato in A minor] has a haunting poetry and one can hardly imagine it better played.

June 2013

Bertrand is nothing if not a gutsy player. The close-up recording captures her every breath and every rasp of bow on string. Pascal Rophe makes sure that the BBC NOW responds in kind...If she is as good live as she sounds here, and if she is as full of insight in the rest of her repertoire, I would certainly travel a distance to hear her.

May 2013

In the Concerto, almost all of the playing is of intense musicality and virtuosity, which this highly original work demands...I feel that Bertrand does overdo at times the 'expressive' nature of her interpretation, but this observation is brought about solely because the rest of her performance is so impressive.

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1 & Cello Sonata

Downloads

Contents

Download queue