Steven isserlis kabalevsky biography
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Book online
- Date
- 25 February / pm
- Venue
- Jacqueline ni Pré Music Building
- Ticket Price
- £48 galleri / £40 stalls / £7 students
Prokofiev: Cello Sonata in C major, op.
Kabalevsky: Cello Sonata in Bb major, op. 71
Julius Isserlis: Ballade in A minor (dedicated to Pablo Casals)
Beethoven: Cello Sonata in A major, op. 69
In the first of Steven Isserlis’s two concerts here in in the lead-up to JdP’s 30th anniversary, the great British cellist is offering a programme of predominantly Russian music, including two powerful and moving cello sonatas originally composed for Rostropovich. Kabalevsky’s Sonata, undeservedly neglected in the West, received its premiere in Moscow in , with composer taking the piano part. It contrasts an electrifying rhythmic energy with passages of veiled lyricism, the second movement even suggesting at times a ghostly ‘dance macabre’. Prokofiev’s Sonata was composed a year after the composer had been denounced at the Zhdanov conference in Febr
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Steven Isserlis at still innovating, still inspiring and still terrified
Virtuoso cellist Steven Isserlis is comically gloomy about his impending 60th birthday, describing his forthcoming Wigmore ingångsrum celebration concert, with starry guests Sir András Schiff, Radu Lupu, Connie Shih, Ferenc Rados, Joshua Bell and Simon Keenlyside, as “my funeral in advance”. Laughing, he asks, “Is there really life after the fifties? Surely, it’s a portal into old age?”
He’s joking, of course; this is man with no intention of slowing down. “I take András Schiff as my inspiration. He’s still playing unbelievable programmes every few days, absolute marathons.” (Schiff turns 65 this month).
Absolute marathons might also describe Isserlis’s birthday season, featuring international tours, two disc releases, a residency in Potsdam, numerous chamber music collaborations, appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
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Under the influence of Daniil Shafran: Steven Isserlis on Kabalevsky
“I feel like I’m giving away a spoiler!” reveals Steven Isserlis conspiratorially. “It’s got this amazing moment at the beginning of the second movement where the alto saxophone has this a huge solo. I always ask the saxophonist to stand up for it. It really hits the audience between the eyes!” We’re talking about Dmitry Kabalevsky’s Second Cello Concerto, which Isserlis is playing with Mario Venzago and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in December and it’s clear he’s a fan.
“It’s very exciting to play, so original. Of course it’s hard, but it’s not ridiculously hard because it’s so idiomatically written for the cello. Audiences enjoy it, orchestras enjoy it, conductors enjoy it and I enjoy it… so I don’t know why it’s not played more often!”
Apart from the occasional Galop from The Co