CELLO HEROICS Vol.2 - Shostakovitch Cello Concerto No.1 Op.107 in E-flat Major Gavriel Lipkind

• 1 Allegretto 06:45
• 2 Moderato 13:12
• 3 Cadenza 07:05
• 4 Allegro con moto 05:14
• Total Runtime 32:16

Info for CELLO HEROICS Vol.2 - Shostakovitch Cello Concerto No.1 Op.107 in E-flat Major

The Cello Heroics recording series aims to become an exhaustive anthology of the concertante repertoire for cello ('The Heroes of the Cello'), but also serves as a kind of touring diary of solo cellist Gavriel Lipkind. A carefully planned recording series wherein every composition is seen as a 'Hero', and each is celebrated as a stand alone production especially planned to serve the needs of that specific work.

The Shostakovich First Cello Concerto is, of course, practically synonymous with Mstislav Rostropovich, the cellist for whom the piece was written and who recorded it a number of times. But Rostropovich isn’t the only competitor Lipkind is up against in this very popular score. A number of recent recordings of the work by Lynn Harrell, Daniel Müller-Schott, Han-Na Chang, and Jamie Walton have offered up extremely impressive accounts that pose serious challenges even to the venerable Rostropovich.

Without hesitation, Lipkind can be added to this list. To begin with, the recording itself is so lifelike and has such presence that it gave me a start when it first began to play. It felt like both Lipkind and the orchestra were right there in the room with me. Once I adjusted to that very realistic and vivid aural perspective, I could only marvel at how incisive and insightful was Lipkind’s reading. His Saint-Saëns and Schumann are good, but his Shostakovich is both technically stunning and emotionally shattering.

Lipkind is of Russian parentage, and it may be the Russian blood in his veins that puts him in touch with Shostakovich in such a personal way. The passage toward the end of the second movement, where the cello’s artificial harmonics are answered by the celesta, will make you want to search your room for creepy, crawly things before going to bed. You may even decide to sleep with the lights on, armed with a can of Raid. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.

Once again, as noted in reviews of Lipkind’s Saint-Saëns and Schumann discs, cellist and conductor take a chamber-music approach to the score, which allows not only for an intimacy in the dialogue between soloist and orchestra, but also for the many magical touches of Shostakovich’s scoring to emerge with unusual clarity. With respect to its instrumentation, Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto really is a kind of chamber concerto. The presence of piccolo and celesta give the score a kind of delicacy, and the absence of a strong brass contingent—there is only one horn and no trumpets or trombones—lends the score a degree of transparency.

Also, something I failed to mention in either the Saint-Saëns or Schumann reviews is that Lipkind’s cello is somewhat of a mystery, or so it seems. Known as “The Zihrhonheimer cello,” the instrument bears a label with a date of 1702 from the shop of Bolognese maker Aloysius Michael Garani (c.1680–1743), but experts have estimated the actual date of construction to be between 1670 and 1680. So, unless they’re wrong, either Garani is not the maker or he made the instrument before he was conceived or while still in the womb. Fascinating. Soundwise, whoever the maker was, the tonal characteristics of Lipkind’s cello are a perfect match for the sometimes gruff, sometimes spectral, sometimes sarcastically biting, and sometimes ethereally beautiful sonorities Shostakovich calls for.

I won’t be throwing away any of the above-mentioned versions, because Shostakovich’s E♭-Major Concerto is a work that both welcomes and challenges all comers. But Lipkind’s contribution to an already impressive list of artists is a distinctive and distinguished one. Urgently recommended. (FANFARE, Jerry Dubins)

Gavriel Lipkind, Cello
Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra
Wojciech Rodek, Conductor

Recording Producer: Christoph Classen
Recording Engineer: Julita Emanuilow
Executive Producer: Gavriel Lipkind
Location: Witold Lutoslawski Concert Hall of the Polish Radio

Gavriel Lipkind, born in Tel Aviv in 1977, enjoyed an early stellar rise to international renown as a young cellist, before making the decision to question a predefined life and halt a predictable path. He decided to take a three-year period of retreat from stage life, during which he devoted himself to further studies and recording. An iconoclastic thinker, Mr. Lipkind’s work today stands for consistent thought and intrinsic musical inspiration without compromising quality — an almost unattainable goal in the life of performing soloists today. Being a genuine fanatic of musical detail and audio documentation, Mr. Lipkind has chosen a radical path of innovation in his profession.

Gavriel Lipkind plays a unique Italian cello labeled "Aloysius Michael Garani (Bologna, 1702)" estimated, however, to have been completed in the years 1670-1680. An enigma which has come to be known as "the Zihrhonheimer cello". The Zihrhonheimer Cello could become an inseparable part of Mr. Lipkind's music making thanks to the generous support of M. & D. P.

Booklet for CELLO HEROICS Vol.2 - Shostakovitch Cello Concerto No.1 Op.107 in E-flat Major