British cellist Steven Isserlis delivers an
unmissable disc, says Peter Quantrill, in this collection of Russian
repertoire that even challenges the supremacy of the great Rostropovich.
Label: Hyperion
Rating *****
Deranged nuns, inveterate gamblers and fairytale princesses are stock-in-trade characters for Prokofiev’s
operas, and it doesn’t take a wild imaginative leap to hear such
fantastical characters peopling the busy, welcoming sprawl of his Cello
Concerto like a comic-book city. It's thanks to Steven Isserlis, who
makes a piece with a chequered history and ‘difficult’ reputation sound
like a masterpiece completely characteristic of its creator.
In his hands, the yearning melody of the opening Andante is worthy of Romeo and Juliet
(also composed in the mid-1930s), while the Scherzo’s rough humour jabs
you in the ribs like a red-nosed joker from Gogol thanks to punchy
support from the winds of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Even
the rambling variations of the finale are held together with a very
timely narrative of one man against many, elucidated by Isserlis in a
passionately argued booklet note: 'The better I know it, the more I love
it', he says, and sympathetic listeners will feel the same. Shostakovich’s First Concerto may require less personal advocacy, but Isserlis steps out from Rostropovich's
bear-like shadow in this music to present another confrontation between
individuality and the mechanistic forces of unknowable power. There’s a
wonderful moment in the second movement where a waltz drifts in like a
ghost orchestra in a deserted ballroom, and Paavo Järvi works hand in
glove with his soloist throughout, offering more positive and detailed
support than Isserlis received on a recent DVD of the work with
different accompanists. It’s an unmissable disc. Artists: Steven Isserlis (cello), Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra/Paavo Järvi Peter Quantrill has written for (among others) Gramophone, Deutsche Grammophon, the Salzburg Festival and Paul McCartney
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