Pieter Wispelwey Cello Sinfonietta Cracovia Jurjen Hempel Conductor

WispelweyBrittenBooklet.qxp 18-05-2009 12:23 Pagina 1 cello CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS SA 25308 Dimitri Shostakovich Concerto nr. 2 in G Major for Cello and Orchestra, op. 126 Benjamin Britten Third Suite for Cello Solo, op. 87 wispelwey Sinfonietta Cracovia Jurjen Hempel conductor pieter WispelweyBrittenBooklet.qxp 18-05-2009 12:23 Pagina 2 Britten & Shostakovich cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. It was for this This CD presents music composed by inspiring and energetic Russian that he Benjamin Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich, composed the Sonata for cello and piano, Op. two striking personalities from recent 20th- 65, the Symphony for cello and orchestra Op. century musical history, who were also united 68, and the Three Suites for cello solo, op. 72, by an intimate friendship. op. 80, and op. 87. Rostropovich gave the Britten had admired the music of Dmitri premieres of all these works, almost during Shostakovich (1906-1975) since the 1930s, and Britten’s own Aldeburgh Festival. since that time he had been influenced by it. The two friends were introduced to each This was the area of Shostakovich’s best other by Dmitri Shostakovitch in 1960, at the known and most often performed symphony, time that Rostropovich gave the premiere of the Fifth, written in 1937. It was composed Shostakovitch Cello concerto nr. 1 in England. amidst the worst terror of the Stalinist regime, From that time onward, Rostropovich and his the paranoia, the culture of spying and wife, the soprano Galina Vishevskaya, were betrayal, the pogroms and mass executions. guests at the Aldeburgh Festival. Strangely enough, both the public and the Britten addressed a distant salute to his Soviet government considered this symphony Russian colleague in the 1971 Third Suite for a mystery. Shostakovich is working with unaccompanied cello. In this work, he double meanings in this work: behind a included Shostakovich’s motto DSCH, not charming smile, a hideous tragedy is taking only his initials but also the notes in de most place. It is this very symphony which Britten frequently occurring motive in his music. It is quotes at the beginning of this Second suite in a musical greeting between two friends, two d minor (1967), as a gesture of solidarity and soul mates who felt the approach of death and sympathy. filled their notes with that awareness. If Britten’s great inspiration for his vocal Shostakovitch wrote his Second Cello music was his friendship with the tenor Peter Concerto in G, op. 126, in 1966, seven years Pears, a major portion of his instrumental after the first. He again dedicated the work to music owes its existence to Britten’s Rostropovich who gave the premiere under friendship, dating from the 1960s, with the conductor Yevgeni Svetlanov on 25 September 2 WispelweyBrittenBooklet.qxp 18-05-2009 12:23 Pagina 3 in the large hall of the Moscow Conservatory. concerto ends with a long-held note in the This concert was given on the occasion of cello, accompanied by an enthusiastic Shostakovich’s 60th birthday. The composer birthday crash from the percussion. could not have provided a gloomier opening for his birthday concert than the shadowy Clemens Romijn introduction of this Second Cello Concerto. Translation: David Shapero The solitary cello slowly ascends from shadowed depths into lamenting high-pitched lines, surrounded by the sonorities of the Frozen tundra and Scottish lower strings. The cello’s sad meditations, early middle ages periodically interrupted by bursts of energy Empty landscapes, desolate conditions, from the xylophone, achieve a dramatic existential fears and threats, nocturnal winter climax, only to be pushed aside by the bass tundra (was that northern light?) and a drum. After this, there is a slow procession Scottish cloister in the fog anno 948. The back to the opening theme, and the movement opening scenes of these pieces are intensely ends emphatically in an atmosphere of grief. evocative. These are meditations, unsentimen- The relatively light hearted central movement, tal evaluations beyond nostalgia. Stories about Allegretto, opens with a rhythmic and sharply- human resilience in desperate conditions. etched theme in the cello, based on an The concerto sometimes feels like a maze. Odessa folk song, Bubliki, kupitye, bubliki There are hallucinatory moments when (Doughnuts for sale, doughnuts!). Here, mountain ranges emerge from frozen surfaces Shostakovich has mixed a generous portion as Siberian mirages. Temperatures reign that of irony and merriment into his music. The affect the brain and one is taken on a roller closing movement alternates between coaster during the bestial spectacle of the ominous fanfares, echoed further on by the Scherzo with its Breughelian collection of unaccompanied cello, as well as tender and unlikely animals. But there are also the lyrical moments for the cello alone. Despite gratifying reactions of a heroic soloist to the the occasional bursts of energy, the under- roar of a many-headed orchestral dragon, tone of the music remains somber, and there which he deals with in several cadenzas. are reminiscences of the first movement. The It all remains quite alienating throughout the 3 WispelweyBrittenBooklet.qxp 18-05-2009 12:23 Pagina 4 last movement with its quasi-virtual little encouraged him to listen to as much music marches and pseudo-idyls. Not to mention as possible but particularly sowed the seeds the ending... That the whole piece is supposed for his love of Renaissance music (Italian to be played in one tempo does add to its and English madrigalists!) and German Lied. already mysterious and monolythic character. These genres, particularly the performances of A metronome number (100 for the three Dietrich Fischer Diskau, have been a constant movements) becomes a universal dogma source of inspiration for Pieter. In 1990 his first with all kinds of enigmatic implications. recording with Channel Classics, The Bach In the suite the journey towards the tragic Cello Suites, was released to great acclaim and passacaglia is a bit like the stations of the in 1992 he was the first cellist ever to receive cross in miniatures. The passacaglia itself is the Netherlands Music Prize, which is endowed an utterly bitter dialogue with a fatal conclu- upon the most promising young musician in the sion. The ensuing apotheosis, the epilogue Netherlands; thus his path was secured to the ending with the old Russian requiem melody, busy and varied career he has today. is equally elusive, mysterious and oppressive as the conclusion of the solo concerto. Pieter has always been at home on the modern cello with metal and/or gut strings as he is on Pieter Wispelwey the baroque 4 string and 5 string cello. There- fore he covers a repertoire from JS Bach to Elliott Carter drawing on a palett of sounds and Pieter Wispelwey was born in Haarlem in the colours available from his range of instruments, Netherlands in 1962. Pieter’s diverse musical string set-ups and bows. Recitals have always personality is rooted in the training he played a major part in Pieter’s concert diary. received-firstly from regular exposure from a As a recitalist with piano, he has all the main very early age to his father’s amateur string repertoire at his disposal. Pieter has appeared quartet when they rehearsed at the Wispel- with a variety of orchestras and ensembles wey home, to lessons with Dicky Boeke and both with and without conductors. During the Anner Bylsma in Amsterdam followed by last decade he has been regarded as one of the studies with Paul Katz in the USA and William leading cello soloists. (for more information: Pleeth in the UK. It was also Dicky Boeke who www.pieterwispelwey.com) 4 WispelweyBrittenBooklet.qxp 18-05-2009 12:23 Pagina 5 5 WispelweyBrittenBooklet.qxp 18-05-2009 12:23 Pagina 6 Jurjen Hempel studied conducting with David Ensemble, and Orkest de Volharding. He is Porcelijn and Kenneth Montgomery at the Chef-conductor with the Netherlands Youth Utrecht Conservatory. Already during his Orchestra. studies he was invited to assist Edo de Waart, Hans Vonk and David Robertson. On invitation The Sinfonietta Cracovia ranks among the of Seiji Ozawa, he studied at the Tanglewood leading Polish and European orchestras. Conducting Class where he worked with The exceptional atmosphere of their concerts, Bernard Haitink and Lorin Maazel. the enthusiastic reception by the audiences, An important recognition of his already glowing reviews and, first of all, the quality distinguished career at that time was when of stage performances are to confirm the he was finalist and prize-winner at the first sustainable development of the still young Sibelius Conductors Competition in May 1996 ensemble. Their success is also due to the in Helsinki. Immediately invitations came from advanced management. Therefore, depending the various Finnish orchestras, followed by re- on the repertoire, the formation is expanded invitations in the past seasons. to a classical-size orchestra with regular In 1996-1997 Jurjen Hempel was appointed wind section, comprising the finest Polish Assistant Conductor to Valery Gergiev with musicians of the younger generation. This the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. In May way of unlimited enrichment of the repertoire 1997 he made his highly acclaimed debut with is propitious for winning new listeners of that orchestra in the Amsterdam Concert- classical music. Inventive publicity campaign gebouw. A few months earlier he made his together with the infallibly high artistic level debut with the The Hague Residentie became the orchestra’s benchmark, which Orchestra and received equal critical acclaim, has been successfully applied for a number as well as re-invitations with both orchestras. of years. His reputation as a conductor of contempo- Robert Kabara took on the artistic leadership rary music leads him to work on a regular of the orchestra at the invitation of the young base with ensembles as London Sinfonietta, musicians in 1992.

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