Shostakovich’s Cello works!
• Cello concerto # 1 and Cello Sonata
On this recording, Han-Na Chang gives two very musical, passionate, and well-thought out interpretations of these two works. She plays with great virtuosity, amazing energy, and a burning intensity. Chang’s tone is full and gorgeous on these two compositions, which she performs flawlessly. That’s what it takes to make the listener enjoy and participate in the enjoyment of terrific compositions.
Chang is accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra in the Cello Concerto #1 in E flat Op.107. Antonio Pappano conducts the orchestra and also provides the piano accompaniment for Ms. Chang in the Cello Sonata in D minor Op.40.
Shostakovich said the following about this work:
• “My next major work will be a cello concerto … The original impulse came from hearing Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto for cello and orchestra, which interested me greatly and it also aroused my desire to try my hand at this genre.”
Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto was completed and first performed by Rostropovich and the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra in October 1959. Han-Na Chang has studied privately with Mstislav Rostropovich and he directed the London Symphony Orchestra on her debut recording for EMI Classics which featured Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Rococco Variations.
Here is Han-Na Chang in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto
Tags: Han-Na Chang, Shostakovich, Cello concerto, Cello Sonata