Shostakovich Puano Concerto 2

German Cellist Jan Vogler's new album features two modern cello concertos. The first is the world premiere recording of the cello concerto "Three Continents" by Nico Muhly (*1981), Sven Helbig (*1968) and Zhou Long (*1953). Three Continents Cello Concerto is a unique collaborative work celebrating the sheer diversity of three composers from three different continents (USA, Germany, China) and almost three different generations. Each movement of the concerto takes a different view of the role of the soloist: Muhly's Cello Cycles uses the large orchestra to striking effect to create a soundscape full of color.

Argerich's 1994 DG reading of the Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings is already a benchmark version among modern recordings, complementing the composer's own technically fallible yet still indispensable 1958 account. But now there is a more natural flow in the slow movement, some previously slightly forced rubati are smoother, and although the textures are a fraction more richly pedalled, as often needs to be the case for projection to a big audience rather than the microphone, there is no more than an infinitesimal loss of clarity. So if anything Argerich's playing has the tiniest of edges even over her former self.

Rachmaninov & Lutoslawski Paganini Variations - Shostakovich Piano Concerto No.1 (Decca)
EAC 099pb4 Rip | APE+CUE, LOGs | 53:24 min | 221 MB 300 dpi PDF Complete Scans
Genre: Classical - 20th Century| Label: Decca Classics - Universal

The Shostakovich concerto is a good choice, not just as a near contemporary of the Paganini Rhapsody, but as a bridge to the zany world of Lutoslawski. It receives a fluent, well-judged and idiomatic performance with every note in place and some lovely trumpet playing from Raymond Simmons.

These performances recorded live at the 2006 Lugano Festival are examples of Martha Argerich at her best. Argerich has always been a supremely virtuosic pianist with artistic temperament to spare, and these performances embody all those qualities to the hilt. With the flashy but never self-indulgent trumpeter Sergei Nakariakov and the superbly sculpted strings of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana led by conductor Alexander Vedernikov, Argerich turns in a concerto that is lively, witty, passionate, and funny in the finale.

Boris Tishchenko's music style and composing manner shows him to be a typical representative of the Leningrad composers' school. He was very much influenced by music of his teachers Dmitri Shostakovich and Galina Ustvolskaya, turning these influences in his own way. He tried to use some experimental and modernist ideas like twelve-tone or aleatoric techniques, but was much more attached to the native traditions of his homeland. He demonstrated a …….