"With a Smile For Slava" for cello and piano

Combined with:
Pärt: Fratres for cello and piano Schnittke: Sonata No. 1 for cello and piano
Schnittke: Musica nostalgica for cello and piano
Shostakovich: Moskva, Cherymushki - A spin through Moscow;Waltz;Dances (Polka - Galop) for cello and piano
Kuulberg: Meenutus 'Reminding' for cello and piano
Ali-Zadeh: Habil-Sayagy In Habil's Style for cello and piano

Quartz QTZ 2032

Matthew Barley (cello)
Stephen De Pledge (piano)

A pretty stern selection packs a powerful punch

Matthew Barley has chosen works by composers who usually present a stern face and, despite the inclusion of a piece with ‘smile’ in the title, severity is the keynote. Shostakovich proves the exception. The suite drawn from his operetta Cheryomushki, with dancing themes rooted in Russian folk music, demonstrates his lighter side. Barley says he found in Cheryomushki something the existing cello repertoire could not supply (though does not explain what) and his arrangements of Shostakovich’s material provide a sprightly start.

Schnittke changes the mood with a work from the Brezhnev years when ‘nothing was possible but everything was important’. The Sonata is intense, heart-rending and bleak. Musica nostalgica, written 13 years later (in 1992) packs a lot of ideas into a short space, pushing off from a Bach pastiche but scooping up some modernist textures and techniques on its way.

Kancheli’s gift for Rostropovich’s 70th birthday is brief but affectionate.

Ali-Zadeh, mixing Cagean experimentalism with Azeri tradition, lightens the atmosphere towards the end of his 15 minutes, then throws in a disconcertingly violent piano intervention.

For Fratres Barley uses a transposition of the version for violin and piano, one of 11 variants Pärt has written. Particularly attractive are the beautiful, delicate comments from the piano.

Kuulberg’s 1987 elegy for a friend recently deceased provides a lovely, tender conclusion to the programme. Short on jollity it may be, but this recital is full of powerful music played with passion and skill.

Barry Witherden
Gramophone, March 2006