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Saint Petersburg Philharmonic in Paris



Natalia Gutman

Natalia Gutman

PARIS: It is always a pleasure when Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra visits Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris. This season with two different concerts. November 29th and 30th. 2011.

I attended the first evening, November 29th, where the program was: Dmitri Shostakovich Cello Concert no 2 g-minor opus 126 with the wonderful Natalia Gutman as soloist. Followed by Anton Dvorak: Symphony no 8 also in G-, but Major
. Opus 88 All conducted by the orchestras great chief conductor Youri Temirkanov.

About Natalia Gutman: 

“She is an incarnation of thruthfulness in music,” wrote the legendary pianist Sviatoslav Richter about the cellist Natalia Gutman, this evenings soloist. Her repertoire is as though a history of music for cello.

Shostakovich Cello concerto is interesting, The first movement begins in a dark and introspective mood, interrupted by the cadenza before the opening theme returns. Sounds like it is  a small history from the daily life in Russia, opening with a sad lonely cello tune, is telling its own sad history, without vibrato, when the life is passing around it in a deep dark mood, but after a while a dialogue is starting where the sad cello is answering the orchestra and a real dialogue and discussion is going on. Included in the musical dialogue are also the orchestras 8 celli and 6 bases going deep down to get the tunes.

Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, archive photo from 2009, Foto Hennong Høholt

The movement then escalates with a series of interjections by the xylophone. This is notable for its mocking and almost uncertain sound; the aggressive taps of the xylophone are accompanied by dark flute and cello undertones. The exchanges continue until the cello leads the orchestra into an aggressive climax; flutes drive the other instruments into a spiralling set of tone shifts, while the brass proclaim long, lonely notes beneath. The climactic moment is concluded by a sharp and sudden boom of the drum, which continues to pulse repeatedly for a short while after. The Largo closes softly. It is like the lonely cello is claiming about something and the others coming out answering. – Strange and beautiful.

This is followed by a happier mood, but still  in minor. The second movement is based on a theme from an Odessa street song, Bubliki, kupitye, bubliki (Buy My Bread Rolls).Then Fanfare signal from French horns is introducing a new solo part, terminated by a sudden interjection of the tambourine and cello solo- the cadenza for the solo cello. Interesting that in fact the cello doesn’t have any beautiful sound, but it has the right sound for this piece, and that is the secret. –A romantic dialogue between the flute and the cello continues the work. Then the cello sound is being beautiful like a new world is being opened, but only for a short while. The Allegretto then moves through lyric, march and dance sections.

The movement builds in intensity, rising with an exchange of cello bursts countered by the snare drum, eventually developing into a furious climax, first restating the fanfare theme, then reverting back to an amplified version of the Odessa theme. The whip is cracked twice during the climax, first unexpectedly, then ending the tutti. The cello then revisits the dance-like statement from earlier in the movement. This is the only one of Shostakovich’s six concertos to end quietly; it is concluded with an eerie exchange of the cello and woodblock, and draws to a low close.

Concertmaster Lev Klychkov, archive photo: Henning Høholt

The concert is ending with the same cello sound – sad, problematic –.  Fantastic played . Ovations from the audience for the wonderful cellist Natalia Gutman, who on stage seems shy, and don’t  really like these ovations, but it looks like the orchestra loves her, perhaps nearly all the cellists has had her as their teacher. A very pleasant meeting with a wonderful soloist and a work that is not being heard so much in the “West”.  Still it is played and recorded by the worlds leading cellists, headed by Rostropowich. Demanding for the orchestra, – and for the audience, but we were being lifted up to another atmosphere.

The concerto is logically formed. Although it makes great use of unusual instruments (common in twentieth century work as well as in Shostakovich’s) and has rather irregular structure, the themes are evenly distributed and played in equal measures. This relative equality of mention is drastically different from the aggressive repetition of the DSCH motif in the First Cello Concerto, and this characteristic proves to be an important aspect of Shostakovich’s later period
.

The Cello Concerto No. 2, opus 126, was written by Dmitri Shostakovich in the spring of 1966 in the Crimea. Like the first concerto, it was written for Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave the premiere in Moscow under Yevgeny Svetlanov on 25 September 1966 at the composer’s 60th birthday concert. Sometimes the concerto is listed as being in the key of G, but the score gives no such indication.

Along with the Eleventh String Quartet, the Preface to the Complete Works, and the Seven Romances on Texts by Alexander Blok, the Second Cello Concerto signaled the beginning of Shostakovich’s late period style
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Like the Fourth Symphony and Ninth String Quartet before it and the Fifteenth Symphony after it, the Second Cello Concerto gave Shostakovich some problems in the compositional stages. The opening Largo, for example, was originally conceived to be the start of a new symphony. Shostakovich later abandoned this idea, however, and reworked this movement into its present form. The finale also gave the composer considerable trouble. He confessed to Mstislav Rostropovich, the concerto’s dedicatee, that he had a finale completely written out but decided to scrap that version and supplant it with the one we know today because he felt that his original finale was weak. Shostakovichalso allowed Rostropovich to make a few changes to the concerto’s cadenzas.

Solo Cellist Nikolay Girumyan, archive photo: Henning Høholt

The concerto is scored for one piccoøo, one flute, two oboes, two clarinets (each doubling B-flat and A), two bassoons, contrebassoon (doubling 3rd bassoon), two horns, timpani,slapstick, wood block, tom-tom, tambourine, snare drum, bass drum, xylophone, two harps (always in unison as indicated on the score), and strings, nd as mentioned above this was a large stringparts, starting from behind with 9 basses and 12 celli.

The concerto lasts around 35 minutes and has three movements: Largo, 2. Allegrett0, 3. Allegretto.

Recordings of this work has been done by Natallia Gutman together with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Youri Temirkanov. By Truls Mørk and London Philharmonic conducted by Mariss Jansons, By Micha Maisky, Heinrich Schiff, Maria Kliegel,  and of cource by Mstislav Rostropovich 4 times with four different orchestras and 4 different conductors.

 

DVORAK 8th Symphony:

Antonin Dvorak´s 8th Symphony is contrasting Shostakovich in a more happy way. It is easier to listen to and also to appreciate with such a large orchestra now with 9 bases and 12 celli and so on.

The Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, B. 163, was composed and orchestrated by Antonin Dorak within the two-and-a-half-month period from August 26 to November 8 1889 in Vysoká u Příbrami, Bohemia. The score was dedicated: “To the Bohemian Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for the Encouragement of Arts and Literature, in thanks for my election.” Dvořák conducted the premiere in Prague on February 2, 1890.

The Eighth Symphony is performed fairly frequently, but not nearly as often as the more famous Ninth symphony (“From the New World”)

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. In this regard the Eighth enjoys a similar status to the Seventh Symphony, despite the two works’ marked differences. While the Seventh is a stormy romantic work, the Eighth is cheery and draws its inspiration more from the Bohemian folk music that Dvořák loved.

Another thing is the conductor Youri Temirkanov. That I again have the pleasure to enjoy, last time was in 2009. He is not making any circus out of his conducting, no big show. He is doing his job, inspiring the musicians to get the best out of it. Bravo. To my opinion. Saint Petersburg Symphony Orchestra is to day one if the best symphonic orchestras in Europe
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The minister of culture Frederick Mitterand attended the concert.

 

Please enjoy our review from 2009: http://www.kulturkompasset.com/2009/12/les-ballets-russes-in-concert-with-saint-petersburg-philharmonique-orchestra/

 

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