Cello Concertos Nos 1 and 2

Abstract

Shostakovich composed this music in July 1959 and Mstislav Rostropovich introduced it at Leningrad on October 4, with Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting. It is lightly scored for double winds, piccolo, contrabassoon, a single horn (no other brass), timpani, celesta, and strings.

Although a prolific composer in other forms, Shostakovich wrote only six concertos. If those for keyboard seem prevailingly saucy and sun dappled, the four string concertos are somberly serious. Where there's any laughter at all, it sounds forced and hollow. To lighten it (or try) only reinforces the "holy fool" (yurodivy) analogy that haunts Solomon Volkov's Testimony, the posthumously alleged Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich.

When the First Cello Concerto was written with almost Mozartean speed, Stalin had been dead six years but not forgotten. In 1958 Boris Pasternak was forced to decline a Nobel Prize for his anti-Stalinist novel, Doctor Zhivago, and then was expelled from the Writers' Union. Ian MacDonald, in The New Shostakovich, concluded that Pasternak's humiliation and subsequent persecution significantly influenced the First Cello Concerto. Volkov, on the other hand, gave no hint, nor did Elizabeth Wilson in A Life Remembered. Most of what she included, anent the concerto, was Rostropovich's celebration of himself, with this notable exception: "In the First Cello Concerto [M.R. speaking], Shostakovich alludes to Stalin's favorite song, 'Suliko.' These allusions are undoubtedly not accidental, but...are camouflaged so craftily that even I didn't notice them to begin with. The first time Dmitry Dmitriyevich hummed this passage through to me [from the concluding rondo movement], he laughed and said, 'Slava, have you noticed?'"

Cello Concerto No. 1 is a major-key work in minor keys more often than not, recalling the mature Schubert's subtle modulations. It was his first large-scale undertaking after the Eleventh Symphony a year earlier and one of the works he quoted in his autobiographical Eighth String Quartet of 1960.

The published score has a preface, "adapted" as follows by the late Leonard Burkat:

"This four-movement concerto is divided into two large parts: the opening movement, and then three more movements played without pause. Together, they form an integral whole with unified themes and images.

"The main theme of the Allegretto first movement is a [four-note] motto that lends itself to dynamic development and reappears many times. The second theme is a rich musical image of Russian character, full of stoic grief and strength of will.

"The second movement, Moderato, has a restrained introduction, after which the cello sings a song-like theme against violas in the background. The melodious second theme is highly expressive, leading to a dramatic climax.

"The third Andantino—Allegro movement is monolog for unaccompanied cello [i.e., a long cadenza] that recalls the first-movement motto and second movement themes while preparing for—"The Allegro con moto finale in rondo form [that] sums up the whole work, with a coda [based on] the principal subject of the first movement...." The end is both harsh and abrupt.