Prokofiev: Cello Concerto, Symphony-concerto / Andrew Litton, Alban Gerhardt (2009)

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Prokofiev: Cello Concerto, Symphony-concerto / Andrew Litton, Alban Gerhardt (2009)

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The two works recorded here have an interestingly close musical relationship that is belied by their radically different sound-worlds. Prokofiev’s first work for cello and orchestra was abandoned by the composer after an unsuccesful premiere, and the full score remained unpublished for years. However, a rising star barely in his twenties, Mstislav Rostropovich, found a copy with piano accompaniment and impressed the composer with his performance in December 1947. As Rostropovich remembered from their backstage encounter: ‘Prokofiev told me that after listening carefully to the Concerto he had decided to rewrite it. I reminded him of this each time I met him after that, but without success.’ What followed, in fact, was a completely new work—the Sonata for cello and piano Op 119—and the premiere of that, with Rostropovich eloquently partnered by Sviatoslav Richter (a recording survives), finally persuaded the now-ailing composer to the dramatic revision of the original Concerto. The resulting Symphony-Concerto is now acknowledged as one of the composer’s late masterpieces.

The young German virtuoso Alban Gerhardt was the soloist in a performance at the BBC Proms in 2008 that convinced a loudly appreciative audience of the merits of this work.

It has been recorded here with the first verson, Cello Concerto No 1, a work of undeniable importance to scholars and music-lovers alike. Andrew Litton conducts the Bergen Symphony Orchestra in their second disc for Hyperion.

Composer: Sergei Prokofiev
Performer: Alban Gerhardt
Conductor: Andrew Litton
Orchestra/Ensemble: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

Reviews: This is the obvious coupling, and no one else has it: the same musical material in two disguises, one from the later 1930s and then the early 1950s. Starker (EMI reissued by ArkivMusic) and Ivashkin (Chandos) are impressive in the underrated but hard to assimilate Concerto. Litton and Gerhardt make an even stronger case for it, and Hyperion offers a good balance between soloist and orchestra, who are in real partnership. Gerhardt is especially fine in lower dynamics, and I like the way he does not show off his tone or technique; he just gets on with it, and serves the music with passion and subtlety. You can’t do better in the Concerto, which here runs about the same time as the Symphony-Concerto , and actually feels longer and more varied. I love this piece, in some ways the end of the road for the composer’s free orchestral expressive imagination. If only he had not gone home.


Prokofiev’s late reworking, done for Rostropovich, is more maligned than neglected, and that has not stopped cellists from recording it, so competition is very hot. André Navarra on Supraphon is my favorite, but with the excellent Chang available extremely cheaply, and with Rostropovich, Shafran, and Ma in the lists, we’re already spoiled for choice. Litton and Gerhardt score again with their close interaction and good balance. They also keep the piece moving, and no way could it be called “sprawling” on this evidence. Gerhardt’s rubato is confident, his expressive range wide, but the orchestral soloists match him all the way. The direct approach doesn’t exclude feeling (try the big cadenza in the middle movement), but there are more epic and extreme qualities in Slava’s readings, and Navarra’s tone is highly suited to this work. That would not stop me from buying the Hyperion, though. This is some of the most musically intelligent cello playing I’ve heard in years, right up to the terrifying coda.


If you’ve waited for a really good recording of the Prokofiev Cello Concerto, then here it is at last, with a vigorous and fresh take on the Symphony-Concerto thrown in.