An album of encores once played by someone else, even someone as famous as Mstislav Rostropovich, might seem an overspecialized product, but German cellist Alban Gerhardt had some success with a similar album devoted to Pablo Casals, and is now back for more. Gerhardt does a reasonable impression of Rostropovich's songful style, overlaid with a bit of mysterious and gloomy Russian philosophy. But the really innovative feature of the album is the program, which draws out the breadth of the great Russian's musical interests, ...
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An album of encores once played by someone else, even someone as famous as Mstislav Rostropovich, might seem an overspecialized product, but German cellist Alban Gerhardt had some success with a similar album devoted to Pablo Casals, and is now back for more. Gerhardt does a reasonable impression of Rostropovich's songful style, overlaid with a bit of mysterious and gloomy Russian philosophy. But the really innovative feature of the album is the program, which draws out the breadth of the great Russian's musical interests, even in the seemingly restricted feel of the encore. Rostropovich understood how to communicate with an audience in a way of which cellists today can only dream, and if he did not have the music he needed at hand, he had it arranged from other media, or arranged it himself. Or he wrote it himself: the album features two Rostropovich compositions, neither terribly common. There are big tunes like the Rachmaninov Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14; brilliant virtuoso pieces like the Elfentanz,...
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Add this copy of Rostropovich Encores to cart. $28.45, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2017 by Hyperion.
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