Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich - Vol. 4
Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, opus 40, Piano Quintet in G minor, opus 57.
Dmitri Shostakovich (piano), Mstislav Rostropovich (cello), Beethoven String Quartet: Dmitri Tsiganov, Vasily Shirinsky (violins), Vadim Borisovsky (viola), Sergei Shirinsky (cello).
Revelation RV 70005. ADD mono. TT 55:05

This installment in Revelation's series presents one of Shostakovich's most musically satisfying recordings, his 1957 performance of his Cello Sonata with Rostropovich. As with other recordings in this cycle, this has been reissued before, most recently on Russian Disc's own Shostakovich plays Shostakovich disc, coupled with both Piano Concertos (RD CD 15 005).

No apologies need be made for the composer's playing here, for which we may thank the fact that he'd had over two decades of practice, having premièred the work himself in December 1934. Rostropovich is on top form. This performance holds up next to the best, with virtuosic playing and flexible rhythms. This is music that can seem inconsequential if played prosaically, but Shostakovich and Rostropovich imbue their performance with emotion. The Largo, emotional linchpin of the work, is dark and anguished, contrasting starkly with the ebullient playing of the movements on either side.

Recorded in the Large Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the sound is generally fine. The piano occasionally sounds like it's playing in a distant cavern, but the cello is captured very well indeed, aside from the analogue hiss that blankets its very loudest notes. In comparison with the Russian Disc CD (which is AAD), the Revelation transfer hisses noticeably more throughout. However, Russian Disc's more drastic noise reduction methods prune the upper frequencies more, rendering a less realistic stage image.

Shostakovich himself also premièred his Piano Quintet, with the Beethoven Quartet, ten years before the recording of this performance. Although the work was not dedicated to Rostropovich as the booklet note states, it still makes a most appropriate companion to the Cello Sonata, as the work, and this performance specifically, possess a similar mix of introspection and brilliant virtuosity. The playing is dazzling, particularly in the Scherzo. Shostakovich threatens to trip over himself here and there, but keeps up with the Beethovens in even the most difficult passages. Although the Quintet was recorded seven years before the Cello Sonata, Revelation have been able to quell more noise without doing harm to the useful frequency range.

Another winner, then, in a most worthwhile enterprise. Rather sad that there are only two more discs to go before the project is completed.

W. Mark Roberts
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