Naslov
IN MEMORIAM SHOSTAKOVICH

Autori
KUGEL, MICHAEL ; PODRUG, VESNA ;

Vrsta, podvrsta
Ostale vrste radova, audio/video zapis

Godina
2002

Ključne riječi
IN MEMORIAM SHOSTAKOVICH

Sažetak
DMITRI SHOSATKOVICH: SONATA FOR VIOLA AND PIANO op.147 MICHAEL KUGEL: SUITE IN MEMORY OF SHOSTAKOVICH FOR VIOLA AND PIANO - First version (1988) Michael Kugel, Viola ; Vesna Podrug, Piano recorded in Vienna in September 15th 1998.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Glazbena umjetnost

Napomena
The Strad December 2002

Review CDs - STRAD SELECTION - RECITAL DISC

In Memoriam Shostakovich
Shostakovich Viola Sonata Kugel Suite in Memory of
Shostakovich
Michael Kugel (viola) Vesna Podrug (piano)
Extraplatte EX 525-2
*STRAD SELECTION - Recital disc*


Michael Kugel has become best known for his fire-
eating virtuosity in pieces like the Bizet–Waxman
Carmen Fantasy or Paganini's Carnevale di Venezia,
which he performs on the viola at the original
pitch (with, of course, some octave
transpositions). This recording presents him in
quite a different light, including as it does
Shostakovich's last work alongside Kugel's own
homage to the older composer.
In his eloquent liner notes (excerpted from a
forthcoming book on the valedictory viola works of
Shostakovich and Bartók), Kugel interprets the
Shostakovich Sonata as the composer's 'plea for
forgiveness and reconciliation, leaving the world
without bitterness or rancour'. Kugel takes a
spacious view of the outer movements, which he
characterises with a rainbow of tone colours, from
an icy non-vibrato to the most hysterical
outpourings of the cadenzas – his triple-stopping
is amazing. In between, the Scherzo gallops on
doggedly, fully in accord with Kugel's view of it
as a danse macabre.
Kugel wrote his Suite in Memory of Shostakovich
while still living in the USSR, where he had to
endure hardship and discrimination not unlike
those suffered by Shostakovich himself. While
never quoting the older man's music – except for
the monogram D-S-C-H (D, E flat, C, B) which opens
the work – Kugel successfully captures
Shostakovich's very particular brand of sarcastic
wit in movements like Waltz-Scherzo and Polka, as
well as the bottomless melancholy of the
Passacaglia (again based on Shostakovich's
monogram). Needless to say, the Suite pulls every
one of the viola's expressive registers and is
ideally presented by its composer, himself
faithfully supported by the excellent Vesna
Podrug.

Carlos María SOLARE

POVEZANOST RADA