Shchedrin

It takes remarkable powers of concentration for a performer to sustain nearly an hour of solo cello music without any support from an accompanying instrument. In this formidable sequence of works the young Russian cellist Boris Andrianov does that triumphantly…The well-known folk-based Song of the Birds by Pablo Casals…brings a performance notably purer than those of Casals himself, at least in his last years. It makes an intensely beautiful close.

Following Ukraine’s independence in 1991, Ivan Karabits became the country’s leading musical figure. An inspirational composer, artistic director and teacher, he absorbed into his own music three particular traditions: Mahler, Shostakovich, and the folk-music of his native country. The colourful, virtuosic and at times theatrical Concertos for Orchestra reflect the influence of his friend and mentor, Rodion Shchedrin. Following Karabits’ untimely death, his compatriot Valentin Silvestrov composed two heartfelt memorials. The first of these, Elegie, makes use of Karabits’ own unfinished pencil sketches which sit side by side with Silvestrov’s own ideas as the piece progresses, almost as if it were a dialogue between the two friends about their work.