Igor Markevitch Tschaikovsky

Poulenc's Cello Sonata is technically demanding for every cellist. Since he had a great affinity for woodwind instruments, his notation is not really tailored to the requirements of a string instrument. He himself was aware of this fact, so he sought expert advice on the composition from the famous cellist Pierre Fournier, who was also the dedicatee and soloist of the premiere in 1948. “Everything we see, hear and touch is connected with feeling.” This is how Leoš Janáček defined his artistic attitude, from which an idiosyncratic musical language emerged that was hardly comparable to other models or traditions of his time. Pohádka means - translated from Czech - “fairy tale”. The model is a fairy tale written by the Russian romantic Wassiliy Shukovskj (1783–1852) about the love of a prince for a princess. This choice of topic shows Janáček's enthusiasm for Russian culture.

The earliest piece on this disc is the delightful Pastorale, written in 1907, when Stravinsky was 25; the latest is the enigmatic Epitaphium, written 52 years later. In between come a clutch of pieces from that fascinating period of Stravinsky’s life when he was moving from Russianism to neo-classicism via jazz. The remaining two, the Octet of 1923 and the Septet of 1953, are both firmly in Stravinsky’s witty, poised neo-classical style, though the Septet is moving towards new, tougher territory. Stravinsky himself made classic recordings of these pieces in the Sixties, now reissued on CD on the Sony label. These are always electric, if sometimes a little untidy, and so closely recorded you feel the players are sitting in your lap. By that lofty benchmark this new recording measures up superbly. Tempos are just as brisk and alert as Stravinsky’s, the accents just as incisive. These qualities are combined with a beautiful soft-grained tone – a nice change from Stravinsky’s lemon-sharp sound.