Shostakovich composed a single Sonata for each principal string instrument. ln the second of three Carnegie Hall concerts commemorating the 50th-anniversary of the composer’s death, Evgeny Kissin welcomed distinguished colleagues to perform them.
The chronologically arranged program got off to a strong start with a fine performance of the Cello Sonata. Dating from 1934, the four-part work is relatively early but one in which Shostakovich’s trademark style of combining highly contrasting elements and styles is already clearly established. With excellent support from Kissin, Gautier Capuçon played with glorious tone and eloquence. Adopting a brisk tempo he displayed a good feeling for its structure while drawing out the traces of bitter melancholy under its humorous surface. In the opening Allegro non troppo the graceful initial melody became increasingly turbulent, with the contrasting second theme marked by a fervent Romanticism. The dance-like next movement came across as an exuberant country romp. The somber, doleful third was followed by a fleet-footed Finale with Kissin releasing some delightfully sparkling runs.
Written in 1968, the bleak and uncompromising Violin Sonata found Gidon Kremer’s interpretation less than totally satisfying. Both the opening, largely introspective Andante and the concluding Largo felt overly restrained and lacking in expressive intensity. The driving rhythms and dissonances of the impulsive Allegretto fared better but the reading failed to fully capture the music’s eeriness and suspenseful atmosphere.
The highlight was Maxim Rysanov and Kissin’s flawless account of the composer’s last composition, his intensely personal Viola Sonata, completed in July of 1975, just weeks before his death. Both artists played with great expression and control as the score – suffused with allusions to works from Shostakovich’s career – traced a journey through life to death. The unrelentingly dark mood of the first two movements conveyed a feeling of elegiac introspection, but it was the spellbinding reading of the brooding and somber Finale that made the music so astonishingly moving. As Kissin accentuated the tension, Rysanov explored the nuances in each phrase. Together they delivered a humane and deeply moving account, made more poignant knowing the piece was written in the final days of Shostakovich’s life.
The post Evgeny Kissin, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Rysanov & Gautier Capuçon at Carnegie Hall – Shostakovich Sonatas appeared first on The Classical Source.
