Shostakovich & Rachmaninov: Cello Sonatas

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His striking reading of Daniil Shafran’s adaptation announces [Leonard Elschenbroich] a major new talent… This is one of the most articulate and highly characterised accounts I’ve heard on the... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2013 More…

Release Date: 29th Apr 2013
Catalogue No: ONYX4116
Label: Onyx
Length: 76 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

Awards Issue 2013

Editor's Choice
Presto Favourites

Recommended Recording

Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19

Work length36:28

$5.50

$7.70

Leonard Elschenbroich, Alexei Grynyuk

I. Lento – Allegro moderato

Track length12:55

$2.00

$2.80

II. Allegro scherzando

Track length6:12

$1.00

$1.40

III. Andante

Track length6:32

$1.00

$1.40

IV. Allegro mosso

Track length10:49

$1.50

$2.10

Shostakovich: Viola Sonata, Op. 147

Work length33:25

Album only

Leonard Elschenbroich, Alexei Grynyuk

I. Moderato

Track length10:04

$1.50

$2.10

II. Allegretto

Track length7:00

$1.50

$2.10

III. Adagio

Track length16:21

Album only

Rachmaninoff: Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14

Work length6:39

$1.00

$1.40

Leonard Elschenbroich, Alexei Grynyuk

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Favourites, Sergei Rachmaninov

David picks out some recordings of the works of Rachmaninov, perhaps the greatest composer for the piano of the Twentieth Century.

The young German cellist Leonard Elschenbroich has rapidly made a name for himself as one of the most exciting and gifted cellists of his generation. Leonard Elschenbroich’s many awards include: the Leonard Bernstein Award, Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, Eugene Istomin Prize, Pro Europa prize, Landgraf von Hessen price of the Kronberg Academy, Nordmetall Prize of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festiva and the Firmenich Prize of the Verbier Festival.

From 2004–2008 he was supported by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, performing with her on a number of occasions, including a European tour. He is also part of the BBC New Generation Artists programme, and appeared at the 2012 Proms season together with his chamber music partners Nicola Benedetti and Alexei Grynyuk. Together with Benedetti and Grynyuk he embarks on a major chamber music tour of Scotland in March. Rachmaninov’s cello sonata was composed at the same time as the Second Piano Concerto. Although as one would expect from such a great pianist-composer, the piano part is demanding, it never threatens to overwhelm the cello, and the result is a beautifully balanced and passionate work.

Shostakovich’s viola sonata was his last composition, finished on his deathbed. Sketches show that the composer was also considering a second cello sonata for his old friend Rostropovich – then living outside the USSR. The arrangement on this CD for cello was made by Daniil Shafran with the dying composer's blessing. In the Viola Sonata, as in his Fifteenth Symphony, Shostakovich alludes to several of his previous works, from the Suite for two pianos Op.6 to the opening movement (De Profundis) from his Fourteenth Symphony. He also quotes from other composers’ works, Berg’s Violin Concerto and, most obviously, throughout the final Adagio, from the first movement of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata, which he uses as the basis for a kind of free meditation.

Reviews

August 2013

His striking reading of Daniil Shafran’s adaptation announces [Leonard Elschenbroich] a major new talent… This is one of the most articulate and highly characterised accounts I’ve heard on the cello… The Shostakovich reveals Alexei Grynyuk to be a remarkable musician with a commanding sense of architecture

Awards Issue 2013

This is a quite exceptional performance of Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata...you immediately sense that they are going to have something of uncommon interest to impart in their interpretation...In the entirely different realms of late Shostakovich, Elschenbroich and Grynyuk are no less persuasive.

Very much a sonata for cello and piano, rather than merely a cello sonata with piano accompaniment, the Op. 19 has a formidably demanding piano part which at the same time must never be allowed to overwhelm the lyrical voice of the cello. Alexei Grynyuk and the young cellist Leonard Elschenbroich strike the perfect balance in this recording.

9th May 2013

a performance of tremendous assurance and power. You could argue that the cello's warmth adds a touch of lyricism that detracts from the sparseness of the original. But there's no mistaking the intensity and commitment that Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk bring to it...Exceptional.

15th August 2013

There is a romantic soul of warmth and virile energy to this interpretation [of the Rachmaninov] that makes it very special indeed...there is an intensely inward, deeply communicative quality to this performance [of the Shostakovich] that draws you right to its tragic, pensive core.

Shostakovich & Rachmaninov: Cello Sonatas

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Favourites, Sergei Rachmaninov

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