„Gulda meets Shostakovich“
Friedrich Gulda and Dmitri Shostakovich – two characters, as different as two diametrically opposed planets. But yet there is an invisible connection, turning them into soul mates: their ironical, sometimes even sarcastic humor. One of them needs it to survive Stalin’s terror, the other acts it out to lean up against the social rigidity. Playfully they let humor slip in their music, willfully sliding into irony, preferably to lift off into sarkasm. One lives it out to revolte against the establishment, the other shortly will be hit by Stalins thunderbolts.
The famous Austrian pianist Friedrich Gulda starts his furious concerto for cello and wind orchestra with an emphatic pop-rock movement, followed by a Mozart style idyll and a highly challenging modern solo cadenza. The second last movement turns into baroque before a virtuoso Austrian folk music – pop rock movement ends the concerto.
Dmitri Shostakovich does not write a single Jazz chord in his Jazz Suites. No, quite the contrary he seems only to use this title as a shell to camouflage his irony against the Stalinist System.
Arranged for cello and wind orchestra these highly virtuoso masterpieces by Dmitri Shostakovich and Friedrich Guldas furious cello concerto are bursting with the energy of a musical firework. But the history behind this master pieces turns the humor into irony and bitter sarcasm.
Key Data
Artists:
Friedrich Kleinhapl, Cello
Wiener Concert Verein or other orchestra
Duration: 80 minutes
Program: Friedrich Gulda – Concerto for Cello and wind ensemble & Dmitri Shostkavich Jazz and Ballet Arrangement for Cello and wind ensemble
Samples