Shostakovich & Prokofiev: Violin Concertos Sir Simon Rattle feat. Sarah Chang

• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 99
• 1I. Nocturne12:03
• 2II. Scherzo06:38
• 3III. Passacaglia08:46
• 4IV. Cadenza04:45
• 5V. Burlesque05:03
• Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953): Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19
• 6I. Andantino10:10
• 7II. Scherzo03:57
• 8III. Moderato08:11
• Total Runtime59:33

Info for Shostakovich & Prokofiev: Violin Concertos

Sarah Chang and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, have recorded the First Violin Concertos by Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev for EMI Classics. The recordings were taken from performances at Berlin’s Philharmonie in September and June 2005 respectively. The resulting album is to be released in 2006, the centenary of Shostakovich’s birth and is Sarah Chang’s first concerto recording since her Dvoøák Violin Concerto CD with the London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Colin Davis, released in 2003.

Sarah Chang said, “To be recording the Shostakovich and Prokofiev Concertos, which are extremely powerful and dramatic and poetic concertos, [with the Berlin Philharmonic] is a huge privilege. … The [Orchestra] has a very special place in my heart. I have been working with them since I was twelve … I feel extremely privileged every time I’m up on stage with them. … Sir Simon Rattle is an absolute genius, a musical godfather.”

Theo Lap, Vice-President of A&R and International Marketing, said, “It is always exciting to see artists working together on a recording for the first time. Both Sir Simon and Sarah are very passionate and energetic musicians and their interpretation of these wonderful works fully reflects this.”

The Berliner Morgenpost described Sarah Chang’s performance of the Shostakovich Concerto as “brilliant and original”; the Berliner Zeitung referred to her rendering of the Prokofiev Concerto as “… a first-class interpretation.”

While Shostakovich was at work on his first violin concerto in 1947, he and several other Soviet composers, including Prokofiev, were accused by the state of “anti-democratic tendencies in music,” “formalistic perversion,” and favouring “confused, neurotic combinations that transform music into cacophony.” Shostakovich completed his score but chose to withhold it from performance and publication, knowing that its “long, rhapsodic nocturne that comes from the blackest hour of the night” (Phillip Hulscher) would not please the authorities. It was only after Stalin died in 1953 that the climate in the Soviet Union changed and Shostakovich, having made minor changes to the score, permitted the Violin Concerto to see the light of day. It was performed and recorded by its dedicatee, David Oistrakh, in 1955.

Sergei Prokofiev began work on a Concertino for violin in 1915, shortly after returning to St. Petersburg from a trip to Europe where he had heard Stravinsky’s Firebird and Petrouchka, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, a performance by Feodor Chaliapin and a concert conducted by Richard Strauss, all of which had excited him tremendously. Prokofiev abandoned the Concertino after composing its enchanting opening melody but a performance of Szymanowski’s Myths by the Polish violinist Paul Kochanski, in 1916, inspired him to return to what had become a violin concerto. With Kochanski’s assistance, he finished the work in 1917, the year he also composed his “Classical” Symphony, Piano Concerto No.3, Piano Sonatas Nos.3 and 4 and Visions fugitives for piano. Had the Bolshevik revolution not intervened, Kochanski would have premiered the Violin Concerto but, in the event, the premiere took place six years later, in Paris, with Marcel Darrieux as soloist, and Serge Koussevitzky conducting. David Oistrakh later became the concerto’s leading interpreter.

Sarah Chang’s EMI discography includes the violin concertos of Mendelssohn, Bruch, Tchaikovsky, Dvoøák, Paganini No.1, Goldmark, Sibelius, Richard Strauss and Vieuxtemps No.5, as well as Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, Saint-Saëns’s Havanaise and Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and chamber music by Dvoøák, Tchaikovsky, Franck, Ravel and Saint-Saëns.

In 2006, Sarah performs the Prokofiev No.1, Brahms, Sibelius and Bruch No.1 Violin Concertos with the San Francisco and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, the London and Danish National Symphony Orchestras, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bavarian State Opera Orchestra, and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under conductors Marek Janowski, Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Masur and Mikko Frank.

“…the warmly recorded Berlin Philharmonic and Rattle provide a tangibly symphonic framework for the Shostakovich, highlighting much interesting detail and colour. Chang is in superb form projecting particularly high-voltage playing in the Scherzo and Finale of the Shostakovich and in the second movement of the Prokofiev.” (BBC Music Magazine)

“The soloist is fortunate to be partnered by Sir Simon Rattle and his Berliners. …this is a reminder of his unambiguous excellence as a concerto accompanist. Sarah Chang… plunges excitedly into climactic passages, determined to give her big dark sound a scorching edge, The technical control is mightily impressive... this is great playing, perhaps the best she has yet given us.” (Gramophone)

Sarah Chang, violin
Berlin Philharmonic
Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

Recorded at Philharmonie, Berlin 2005
Produced by Stephen Johns
Engineered by Mike Clements
Edited at Abbey Road
Mastered by Simon Kiln

Sir Simon Rattle
Im Jahr 2002 trat Sir Simon Rattle sein Amt als Chefdirigent der Berliner Philharmoniker an, nachdem er hier 15 Jahre zuvor debütiert hatte. Damit übernahm er ein anspruchsvolles Erbe, muss in dieser Position doch auf besondere Weise zwischen Tradition und Innovation vermittelt werden. Ein bedeutender Dirigent Mahlers und der Komponisten der zweiten Wiener Schule wie sein direkter Vorgänger Claudio Abbado, schärfte Rattle dessen kammermusikalisches Klangideal – nicht nur in Symphoniekonzerten, sondern auch in der von ihm neu eingeführten Serie intimer »Late Night«-Programme. Auch das Kernrepertoire der Karajan-Ära pflegt Sir Simon mit viel beachteten Aufführungen großer Werke der Klassik und Romantik. Darüber hinaus hat er mit den Osterfestspielen in Salzburg und seit 2013 in Baden-Baden die Musiktheater-Tradition der Berliner Philharmoniker weitergeführt, unter anderem mit der ersten Gesamtaufführung von Wagners Ring des Nibelungen seit Karajans Zeiten.

Zugleich verbinden sich mit dem Namen Rattle wesentliche Neuerungen. So hat der in Liverpool gebürtige Künstler das anglo-amerikanische Repertoire der Berliner Philharmoniker um Werke von Britten, Elgar, Bernstein und Gershwin bereichert. Zum Zweiten ist Rattle seit Langem in der historischen Aufführungspraxis zu Hause. Deren Erkenntnisse hat er in hochgelobten Aufführungen von Haydns Symphonien und Bachs Passionsmusiken zum Klingen gebracht. Und schließlich haben sich die Berliner Philharmoniker unter Rattle verstärkt für neuere und neueste Musik engagiert; dafür stehen neben regelmäßigen Uraufführungen Konzerte mit Werken von Lutosławski über Ligeti bis hin zu Adès, Widman, Gubaidulina und Goebbels. Neben seiner künstlerischen Arbeit ist die Vermittlung von klassischer Musik an Jugendliche ein zentrales Anliegen Simon Rattles, weshalb er mit seinem Amtsantritt in Berlin ein philharmonisches Education-Programm initiierte, das unter anderem durch den Kinofilm Rhythm Is It! weltweit für Aufsehen sorgte.

Sir Simon zeichnet eine rare Kombination aus Neugier, stilistischer Vielseitigkeit und Detailgenauigkeit aus – Qualitäten, die seine ganze Laufbahn prägen. Mit noch nicht zwanzig Jahren war er 1971 Sieger des John-Player-Dirigierwettbewerbs. Engagements in England und in den USA folgten. Zu internationaler Bekanntheit gelangte Simon Rattle 1980 bis 1998 als Leiter des City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, der das Ensemble mit bis heute anhaltender Wirkung aus der Peripherie ins Zentrum des Musiklebens geführt hat. Nicht zuletzt für dieses Verdienst wurde Simon Rattle 1994 von Queen Elizabeth II. in den Adelsstand erhoben. 2007 wurde er gemeinsam mit den Berliner Philharmonikern zum Internationalen UNICEF-Botschafter ernannt. Neben zahlreichen weiteren Auszeichnungen erhielt er 2009 das deutsche Verdienstkreuz erster Klasse.

Booklet for Shostakovich & Prokofiev: Violin Concertos