A Mutter protégé impresses in a wide-ranging Russian programme
The Strad Issue: January 2025
Description: A Mutter protégé impresses in a wide-ranging Russian programme
Musicians: Lionel Martin (cello) Demian Martin (piano) SWR Symphonieorchester/Giedre Šlekytë; Camerata Schweiz/Howard Griffiths
Works: Kabalevsky: Cello Concerto no.2. Shostakovich: Cello Sonata. Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations
Catalogue number: SWR MUSIC SWR19159CD
In this, his second CD, Lionel Martin – one of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s young scholarship-holders – continues to impress. He offers a Russian programme that straddles two centuries and encompasses both orchestral and chamber music. In Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata, Lionel’s brother, Demian, is his partner in this live, warmly engineered recording. Their empathy is tangible, and they bring a pained lyricism to the first movement, while a gruff burlesque tears through the second. Deliberate repeated piano notes in the Largo sound like weary breaths, before the more humorous finale breezes on to the stage.
Shostakovich’s trademark grey melancholy certainly hovers over Kabalevsky’s Second Cello Concerto – a much darker work than most of his other concertos. Martin brings an eloquent lyricism to the tender melody that dominates the ruminative opening movement, before delivering suitably percussive playing in the contrasting Allegro. A heartfelt and poignant melody emerges in the finale, which is at a predominantly slower tempo. In between, the fast and furious Presto is brilliantly projected with a very precise and well-articulated orchestral partnership from the SWR Symphonieorchester under Giedre Šlekytë.
Martin is equally persuasive in the Tchaikovsky. His lyrical style, coupled with splendid virtuosity, somehow projects a self-effacing manner that always puts the music centre stage. With elegant playing from the Camerata Schweiz, this version of the Rococo Variations conveys great charm and refinement.
JOANNE TALBOT
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