Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No.1, Cello Sonata Op.40

Product Description Written 25 years apart, the two masterpieces for cello by Shostakovich recorded here were represent very different periods in the composer's career. The audaciously insolent Cello Sonata of 1934 is contemporary with Lady MacBeth of the Mtsensk District - the opera soon to plunge Shostakovich into disgrace with Stalin. It is paired with the bitter and self-questioning Cello Concerto No.1 from 1959, a work by a traumatized humorist who had long since learned not to laugh. Soloist Emmanuelle Bertrand is joined by pianist Pascal Amoyel for the sonata and by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales led by Pascal Rophe for the concerto. Review ''This is one hell of a performance of Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto. Emmanuelle Bertrand and conductor Pascal Raphe team up to produce one of the most intense and neurotic versions yet of this intense and neurotic piece... it's just sensational, and may well become your 'go to' version of the piece.'' --Classics Today 10/10 ''One can hardly imagine it better played." --BBC Music Magazine