Tcherepnin Alexander

Bach showed that the cello can dance, but composers from Rossini to Shostakovich have favored it as an instrument of pensive reflection and brooding melancholy. The playful cover photo notwithstanding, SOLO features Yo-Yo Ma in five 20th century cello works of a serious nature, all with folk influence and all echoing at least a bit of the troubles of the times in which they were written.

Described as a ‘phenomenon’, Tatjana Vassiljeva is known as a musician possessing an irreproachable technique and irresistible range of sonorities, whose superlative virtuosity is of only minor importance beside the strength of musical personality and ideas, and her ability to communicate them. Tatjana’s innate musical curiosity is reflected by her extensive repertoire which ranges from baroque to contemporary music and includes several works of which she has given the world première.

After Tchaikovsky, but with Glazunov, and before Stravinsky and the rest, Nikolai Tcherepnin (1873-1945) made a not so quiet contribution to the continuing development of the Russian ballet. But he was quite an overshadowed figure, in large part due to the success of Stravinsky & his son, Alexander Tcherepnin and to modernist trends that became prevalent by the early Twentieth Century (Nikolay’s music remains rooted in the sound-worlds and mannerisms of Tchaikovsky, Massenet, and Faure). But the language of "Narcisse et Echo" (1911) and telling subtleties in its orchestral resources point to Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe" written a year later.

Captured in the Maly Hall of the Moscow Conservatory where much of Prokofiev's work was first heard, it's surprising to find so many aspects of the composer's style represented, from the Romanticism of the early Ballade through the spiky dissonances of Chout to the elegiac, unfinished Solo Sonata. Aided by characterful piano-playing by Tatyana Lazareva, Ivashkin's recital compares most favourably with his similar programme on Ode for which he was accompanied by a more reticent pianist; although the earlier disc includes the Concertino movement in the guise of Rostropovich's cello quintet arrangement, the absence of the Chout transmogrification makes the Chandos collection appear better value.

Three Centuries of Bagatelles: what a neat idea! Although most of the music comes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – the only work that comes from eighteenth century is Couperin's Les Bagatelles (Rondeau) from Book Two of his Pièces de Clavecin – the selection is so cool – Beethoven's supremely well-known Bagatelle Für Elise, plus other far-less-well-known works by Saint-Saëns, Liszt, Bartók, Lyadov, Tcherepnin, and Denisov – and the performances are so sweet it's almost impossible to resist this disc. Superbly played by Russian-born, American-based pianist Julia Zilberquit, each little work comes alive with its own personality and its own melodic charms and stylistic quirks. With an agile technique and a brilliant tone – listeners may recall her superlative 1996 recording of Shostakovich's concertino arranged for piano and string orchestra by the performer – Zilberquit never fails to find what's distinctive about each tiny piece – the 36 pieces here average only a bit longer than two minutes – and never fails to make it appealing. Recorded in clear, round digital sound by producer Vadim Ivanov in the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory in 2001, this disc will delight all but the stubbornest fans of musical giganticism.

Alexander Tcherepnin was a very good composer, and his six piano concertos, licensed from BIS for this Brilliant Classics release, constitute an impressive body of work, full of color, variety, and contrast. The first two are single-movement pieces, while in the third Tcherepnin expands the formal layout to two movements without exceeding the very modest length of his first two concertos. In the Fourth Concerto things get really interesting: it consists of three short tone poems based on Chinese stories and melodies. Now admit it, who can resist a slow movement called “Yan Kuei's Love Sacrifice”?

The famous Russian pianist-composer, who became an American citizen in 1958, was as well known in 1930s Paris as Stravinsky and heir to a number of Slav cultures in Europe and Asia. In the course of long visits, he also analysed the music of the Far East (China, Japan, Korea…), endeavouring to find a common language in the various folklores he discovered.

In BIS' Chinoiserie, pianist Jenny Lin brings one of the most compelling and relevant themed recitals to be heard on disc in years, a collection of pieces by Western composers that attempts to explore the subject of China in some regard, not only musically but culturally.