Han-Na Chang, Antonio Pappano, LSO - Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante, Sonata for Cello and Piano (2003) Reissue 2008

This review is going to be a bit more about my subjective impressions than I usually allow, so I want to ask your indulgence up front. Prokofiev's Sinfonia concertante has its supporters and detractors, but I have always fallen somewhere in the middle: I want to like it but the piece never has really worked for me. In particular, Rostropovich's unequalled intensity in the solo part always has been compromised by soft-edged or unsatisfactory accompaniments (or recordings). Recent performances have improved in that department, but even such famous and technically accomplished cellists as Yo-Yo Ma and Truls Mork never have equaled Rostropovich's abandon in the hellishly difficult and very, very long scherzo central movement. However, Han-Na Chang and Antonio Pappano collaborate in a truly stunning performance that has all of the great Russian cellist's passion and urgency married (at last!) to an equally gutsy and idiomatic accompaniment, making the work a true "sinfonia concertante", a contest of equals, for the very first time.

Now if you have always loved this piece or think the above observations are simply nonsense, you can ignore all of the forgoing; but if you have yet to be won over or, like me, have been essentially sitting on the fence waiting for an epiphany, this performance may offer just the ticket. Start at the beginning, and note how Pappano has the LSO players give a nice staccato kick to the oft-repeated arpeggio ostinato that launches the work and recurs throughout the movement. The sense of forward progress, even in this predominantly lyrical introduction, receives additional assistance from Chang, who pours on the tone and phrases with impressive freedom and real Romantic ardor. Her attack on the scherzo is dazzling and totally uninhibited, an extraordinary essay in virtuosity, heightened by the sweetness and purity (in terms of both emotion and intonation) of its slower sections. The finale similarly achieves an all-too-rare feeling of inexorability, with Pappano holding nothing back in the closing pages as the orchestra brass propel the soloist into her highest register for the remarkable final bars. Wow!

The Cello Sonata, also an appealing and neglected work, makes the perfect coupling, with Pappano as pianist offering as dynamic and emotionally wide-ranging an accompaniment as he did as conductor in the Sinfonia concertante. EMI's sonics in the orchestral work are just about perfect, offering ideal balances and capturing perhaps just a bit too much of Chang's occasional heavy breathing–but I'm not going to let that prevent this performance from earning the highest rating. In the sonata, the cello dominates but there's plenty of room for the piano to expand sonically, and the louder sections reveal both players in good focus. As an offering for the 50th anniversary year of the composer's death in 1953, this release stakes a serious claim as the most important and rewarding yet. Don't miss it.

Review by David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Though we can expect further significant additions to the Prokofiev discography this year, few are likely to be more welcome than these partially overlapping, though differently targeted programmes. Ivashkin’s is an obvious choice for the specialist collector seeking a complete survey of Prokofiev’s works for the cello in a chamber context. It is his second attempt to plug this gap and should enjoy wider distribution than its not quite identical predecessor on Ode Manu Classics. Chang and Pappano offer a fiercely communicative Symphony-Concerto (EMI has unhelpfully reverted to the outmoded nomenclature of Sinfonia Concertante) and an equally distinctive, though more conventionally ruminative account of the Sonata.

It is fair to assume that the Korean cellist is the youngest exponent of these pieces on disc, and it shows in the best possible way as her youthful vivacity meets Prokofiev’s mature style. Although still in her teens, she is an experienced, even mature recording artist with several fine discs under her belt including an acclaimed Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations with the LSO under Rostropovich, set down when she was a mere 13 years old (EMI, 11/96). Her taut, ardent conception of the main work here, music that can often come across as rambling and discursive, is the most radical thing she has done, knocking minutes off the timings of almost every previous recording. The first movement is perfectly pitched, never self-indulgent, and it is easy to forgive any momentary lack of unanimity when editing might have impaired the forward thrust of the music-making. Chang’s authoritative style reaps huge rewards from 7'25", where the theme sings out in the very highest register.

The central scherzo is sensationally swift and articulate but deeply felt too, with more emotional as well as physical precision than I can recall from previous performances barring Rostropovich’s own. Prokofiev’s sometimes wan lyricism is revivified by Chang’s refined sensibility; her phrasing truly breathes with the music and the vulnerable, confessional quality she reveals may well bring a tear to the eye. Autumnal half-lights are usually more potent for being strictly rationed, and Pappano is forthright as well as ‘sensitive’, giving us some minatory, Soviet-sounding brass interventions – try from 5'48" – amid the hustle and bustle (more panic and frenzy in this interpretation).

Of course, it’s not only the refined direction that brings new colour, clarity and lustre to Prokofiev’s orchestral fabric. EMI’s sound is genuinely top-notch, and you may be taken aback to discover just how terrific this orchestra can sound in a sympathetic recording studio. The cellist is placed closer than would be the case in live concert, but such technically invulnerable playing can take it.

Even in such exalted company, Ivashkin’s recital is by no means outclassed. Captured in the Maly Hall of the Moscow Conservatory where much of Prokofiev’s work was first heard, it is surprising to find so many aspects of the composer’s style represented, from the romanticism of the early Ballade through the spiky dissonances of Chout to the elegiac, unfinished Solo Sonata. Aided by characterful piano-playing by Tatyana Lazareva (daughter of the conductor, Alexander Lazarev), Ivashkin’s recital compares most favourably with his similar programme on Ode for which he was accompanied by a more reticent pianist; although the earlier disc includes the Concertino movement in the guise of Rostropovich’s cello quintet arrangement, the absence of the Chout transmogrification makes the Chandos collection appear better value.

We start with the familiar Cello (and piano) Sonata, a highly polished and deeply felt account which some may actually prefer to Chang/Pappano’s when Lazareva provides a weightier, more authentically Russian accompaniment. Pappano’s piano sound is subtler, more legato, tactfully retreating into the background at times. The Ballade is surely the best version yet of this increasingly popular work. Good though Wallfisch’s expansive reading is, Ivashkin surpasses him in his juxtaposition of the 19th-century style of the opening and the ghostly second idea, hushed to a real pianissimo. Instead of Wallfisch’s ‘March’ from The Love for Three Oranges, we get a Chout selection arranged by the Russian cellist Roman Sapozhnikov; again the rendition is technically spotless. Finally comes the Sonata for cello alone, its nostalgic opening brought off perfectly. Ivashkin’s playful treatment of the central gavotte-like section reminds us that he can do humour as well. Two minor quibbles: C major is the omnipresent key of the opening 40 minutes of this concert and, while the sound is fine, the stereo separation may be thought too much of a good thing.

A double whammy nevertheless, and Han-Na Chang’s coupling has to be my record of the year so far.

Review by David Gutman, Gramophone

Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015

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Prokofiev / Symphony-Concerto, Cello Sonata - Han-Na Chang & Antonio Pappano

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