Cello Concerto No. 2 (Shostakovich)
Encyclopedia
The Cello Concerto No. 2, Opus
126, was written by Dmitri Shostakovich
in the spring of 1966 in the Crimea
. Like the first concerto, it was written for Mstislav Rostropovich
, who gave the premiere in Moscow
under Yevgeny Svetlanov
on 25 September 1966 at the composer's 60th birthday concert. Sometimes the concerto is listed as being in the key of G, but the score gives no such indication.
Along with the Eleventh String Quartet
, the Preface to the Complete Works, and the Seven Romances on Texts by Alexander Blok, the Second Cello Concerto signaled the beginning of Shostakovich's late period style.
and Ninth String Quartet
before it and the Fifteenth Symphony after it, the Second Cello Concerto gave Shostakovich some problems in the compositional stages. The opening Largo, for example, was originally conceived to be the start of a new symphony
. Shostakovich later abandoned this idea, however, and reworked this movement into its present form. The finale also gave the composer considerable trouble. He confessed to Mstislav Rostropovich, the concerto's dedicatee, that he had a finale completely written out but decided to scrap that version and supplant it with the one we know today because he felt that his original finale was weak. Shostakovich also allowed Rostropovich to make a few changes to the concerto's cadenzas.
is scored for one piccolo
, one flute
, two oboe
s, two clarinet
s (each doubling B-flat and A), two bassoon
s, contrabassoon
(doubling 3rd bassoon), two horn
s, timpani
, slapstick
, wood block
, tom-tom
, tambourine
, snare drum
, bass drum
, xylophone
, two harp
s (always in unison as indicated on the score), and strings
.
The concerto
lasts around 35 minutes and has three movements
:
. This is notable for its mocking and almost uncertain sound; the aggressive taps of the xylophone are accompanied by dark flute and cello undertones. The exchanges continue until the cello leads the orchestra into an aggressive climax; flutes drive the other instruments into a spiralling set of tone shifts, while the brass proclaim long, lonely notes beneath. The climactic moment is concluded by a sharp and sudden boom of the drum, which continues to pulse repeatedly for a short while after. The Largo closes softly.
street song, Bubliki, kupitye, bubliki (Buy My Bread Rolls).
s, terminated by a sudden interjection of the tambourine and cello solo. The Allegretto then moves through lyric, march and dance sections. The movement builds in intensity, rising with an exchange of cello bursts countered by the snare drum, eventually developing into a furious climax, first restating the fanfare theme, then reverting back to an amplified version of the Odessa theme. The whip is cracked twice during the climax, first unexpectedly, then ending the tutti. The cello then revisits the dance-like statement from earlier in the movement. This is the only one of Shostakovich's six concertos to end quietly; it is concluded with an eerie exchange of the cello and woodblock, and draws to a low close.
The concerto is logically formed. Although it makes great use of unusual instruments (common in twentieth century work as well as in Shostakovich's) and has rather irregular structure, the themes are evenly distributed and played in equal measures. This relative equality of mention is drastically different from the aggressive repetition of the DSCH motif in the First Cello Concerto
, and this characteristic proves to be an important aspect of Shostakovich's later period.
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
126, was written by Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
in the spring of 1966 in the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
. Like the first concerto, it was written for Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
, who gave the premiere in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
under Yevgeny Svetlanov
Evgeny Svetlanov
Yevgeny Fyodorovich Svetlanov was a Russian conductor, composer, and though less well-known, a pianist.Svetlanov was born in Moscow and studied conducting at the Moscow Conservatory. From 1955 he conducted at the Bolshoi Theatre, being appointed principal conductor there in 1962...
on 25 September 1966 at the composer's 60th birthday concert. Sometimes the concerto is listed as being in the key of G, but the score gives no such indication.
Along with the Eleventh String Quartet
String Quartet No. 11 (Shostakovich)
Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 11 in F minor was composed in 1966. It was premiered by the Beethoven Quartet and is dedicated to Vasily Shirinsky, the quartet's veteran second violin.The piece has seven movements:...
, the Preface to the Complete Works, and the Seven Romances on Texts by Alexander Blok, the Second Cello Concerto signaled the beginning of Shostakovich's late period style.
Composition
Like the Fourth SymphonySymphony No. 4 (Shostakovich)
Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Opus 43, between September 1935 and May 1936, after abandoning some preliminary sketch material...
and Ninth String Quartet
String Quartet No. 9 (Shostakovich)
Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 9 in E flat major was composed in 1964 and premiered by the Beethoven Quartet. The Ninth Quartet was dedicated to his third wife, Irina Antonovna Shostakovich, a young editor whom he had married in 1962....
before it and the Fifteenth Symphony after it, the Second Cello Concerto gave Shostakovich some problems in the compositional stages. The opening Largo, for example, was originally conceived to be the start of a new symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
. Shostakovich later abandoned this idea, however, and reworked this movement into its present form. The finale also gave the composer considerable trouble. He confessed to Mstislav Rostropovich, the concerto's dedicatee, that he had a finale completely written out but decided to scrap that version and supplant it with the one we know today because he felt that his original finale was weak. Shostakovich also allowed Rostropovich to make a few changes to the concerto's cadenzas.
Scoring
The concertoConcerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
is scored for one piccolo
Piccolo
The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
, one flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, two oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s, two clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
s (each doubling B-flat and A), two bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
s, contrabassoon
Contrabassoon
The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon or double-bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower...
(doubling 3rd bassoon), two horn
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
s, timpani
Timpani
Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
, slapstick
Whip (instrument)
In music, a whip or slapstick is a percussion instrument consisting of two wooden boards joined by a hinge at one end. When the boards are brought together rapidly, the sound is reminiscent of the crack of a whip. It is often used in modern orchestras, bands, and percussion ensembles.There are...
, wood block
Wood block
A woodblock is essentially a small piece of slit drum made from a single piece of wood and used as a percussion instrument. It is struck with a stick, making a characteristically percussive sound....
, tom-tom
Tom-tom drum
A tom-tom drum is a cylindrical drum with no snare.Although "tom-tom" is the British term for a child's toy drum, the name came originally from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala; the tom-tom itself comes from Asian or Native American cultures...
, tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
, snare drum
Snare drum
The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
, bass drum
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
, xylophone
Xylophone
The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
, two harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
s (always in unison as indicated on the score), and strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
.
The concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
lasts around 35 minutes and has three movements
Movement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...
:
- Largo
- Allegretto
- Allegretto
First movement
The first movement begins in a dark and introspective mood, interrupted by the cadenza before the opening theme returns. The movement then escalates with a series of interjections by the xylophoneXylophone
The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
. This is notable for its mocking and almost uncertain sound; the aggressive taps of the xylophone are accompanied by dark flute and cello undertones. The exchanges continue until the cello leads the orchestra into an aggressive climax; flutes drive the other instruments into a spiralling set of tone shifts, while the brass proclaim long, lonely notes beneath. The climactic moment is concluded by a sharp and sudden boom of the drum, which continues to pulse repeatedly for a short while after. The Largo closes softly.
Second Movement
The second movement is based on a theme from an OdessaOdessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
street song, Bubliki, kupitye, bubliki (Buy My Bread Rolls).
Third Movement
The finale begins with French horn fanfareFanfare
A Fanfare is a relatively short piece of music that is typically played by trumpets and other brass instruments often accompanied by percussion...
s, terminated by a sudden interjection of the tambourine and cello solo. The Allegretto then moves through lyric, march and dance sections. The movement builds in intensity, rising with an exchange of cello bursts countered by the snare drum, eventually developing into a furious climax, first restating the fanfare theme, then reverting back to an amplified version of the Odessa theme. The whip is cracked twice during the climax, first unexpectedly, then ending the tutti. The cello then revisits the dance-like statement from earlier in the movement. This is the only one of Shostakovich's six concertos to end quietly; it is concluded with an eerie exchange of the cello and woodblock, and draws to a low close.
The concerto is logically formed. Although it makes great use of unusual instruments (common in twentieth century work as well as in Shostakovich's) and has rather irregular structure, the themes are evenly distributed and played in equal measures. This relative equality of mention is drastically different from the aggressive repetition of the DSCH motif in the First Cello Concerto
Cello Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich)
The Cello Concerto No. 1 in E Flat Major, Opus 107, was composed in 1959 by Dmitri Shostakovich. He wrote the work for his friend Mstislav Rostropovich, who committed it to memory in four days and gave the premiere on October 4, 1959, with Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic...
, and this characteristic proves to be an important aspect of Shostakovich's later period.
Recordings
Recordings of this work include the following:- Mstislav RostropovichMstislav RostropovichMstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
/Moscow Philharmonic OrchestraMoscow Philharmonic OrchestraThe Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra based in Moscow, Russia. It was founded in 1951 by Samuil Samosud, as the Moscow Youth Orchestra for young and inexperienced musicians, acquiring its current name in 1953...
/David OistrakhDavid OistrakhDavid Fyodorovich Oistrakh , , David Fiodorović Ojstrakh, ; – October 24, 1974, was a Soviet violinist....
(12-Nov-1967) (Yedang Classics) - Mstislav RostropovichMstislav RostropovichMstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
/USSR Symphony OrchestraState Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian FederationThe State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation is a Russian orchestra based in Moscow...
/Evgeny SvetlanovEvgeny SvetlanovYevgeny Fyodorovich Svetlanov was a Russian conductor, composer, and though less well-known, a pianist.Svetlanov was born in Moscow and studied conducting at the Moscow Conservatory. From 1955 he conducted at the Bolshoi Theatre, being appointed principal conductor there in 1962...
(EMI ClassicsEMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....
) - Mstislav RostropovichMstislav RostropovichMstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
/BBC Symphony OrchestraBBC Symphony OrchestraThe BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
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(BBC Legends; monophonic aircheck of the first Western performance) - Mstislav RostropovichMstislav RostropovichMstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
/Boston Symphony OrchestraBoston Symphony OrchestraThe Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
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(Deutsche Grammophon) - Maria KliegelMaria Kliegel-Professional career:Kliegel was born in Dillenburg, Hesse. She studied under Janos Starker starting at the age of 19. She won first prize at the American College Competition, First German Music Competition and Concours Aldo Parisot, and was also the Grand Prize winner at the 2nd Mstislav...
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)