Shostakovich: Cello Concertos Nos 1 & 2 Gautier Capuçon & Frank Braley

• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975):Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 107:
• 1 Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 107: I. Allegretto 06:27
• 2 Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 107: II. Moderato 13:50
• 3 Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 107: III. Cadenza 06:31
• 4 Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 107: IV. Finale - Allegro con moto 04:46
• Cello Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 126:
• 5 Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 126: I. Largo 14:37
• 6 Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 126: II. Scherzo: Allegretto 04:25
• 7 Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 126: III. Finale: Allegretto 16:28
• Total Runtime 01:07:04

Info for Shostakovich: Cello Concertos Nos 1 & 2

“Capuçon and Gergiev deliver some grand and glorious moments” was Gramophone’s response to the last collaboration by Gautier Capuçon and Valery Gergiev on a recording of Russian music. Now they have made two live recordings, at Paris’s Salle Pleyel and St. Petersbourg’s Mariinsky Theatre with the Mariinsky Orchestra, of Shostakovich’s two contrasting cello concertos, both composed for Mstislav Rostropovich.

Now, the two musicians – whose collaboration, again in Gramophone’s words, “was bound to strike sparks” – have come together for two live recordings, made in December 2013 at Paris’s Salle Pleyel and June 2014 at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Thetre with the Mariinsky Orchestra. The works in question are Dmitri Shostakovich’s cello concertos Nos 1 and 2, both of which were written for Mstislav Rostropovich. The first was composed in 1959 (a year after the Central Committee of the Communist Party admitted that in 1948 there had been unjust condemnation of Shostakovich and other composers as ‘Formalist’), the second in 1966. The two concertos are different in spirit and shape: the first is often assertive and energetic, and features a huge cadenza for the cello that is almost a movement in its own right, while the second is introspective and enigmatic.

When Capuçon played the Concerto No.1 in New York in early 2014, the New York Times said: “Mr Capuçon played the work beautifully, negotiating its difficulties with seeming ease ... his elegance paid dividends ..., especially in the meditative Moderato and the brooding opening of the cadenza.” When he took the piece to Montreal, also in early 2014, the news website Pieuvre.ca reported that “[his] sensitive, virtuosic interpretation was rewarded with a long ovation.”

Gautier Capuçon, cello
Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
Valery Gergiev, conductor

Gautier Capuçon
is widely recognised as one of the foremost cellists of his generation and has received consistently high critical praise for his recordings and performances. Born in Chambéry in 1981, Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet-Zakine, and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. The winner of various first prizes in many leading international competitions, including the International André Navarra Prize, Capuçon was named ‘New Talent of the Year’ by Victoires de la Musique (the French equivalent of a Grammy) in 2001; in 2004 he received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award since which time he has received several Echo Klassik awards, most recently for his recording of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev with Gergiev and for his recording of Fauré’s complete chamber music.

Capuçon performs regularly as a soloist with the major orchestras worldwide, and is a favourite of conductors at the highest level including Gergiev, Dudamel, Bychkov, Haitink, Chung, Dutoit, Eschenbach, Nelsons and Nézet-Séguin. In recent seasons, concerto highlights have included orchestras such as LA Philharmonic, Seattle, Boston, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Vienna Symphony and the Deutsche Symphony Orchestra with whom he toured Europe. A regular recital and chamber musician, Capuçon appears in the major halls and festivals across Europe, and every year at the Verbier Festival and at Project Martha Argerich, Lugano, performing with many of the world’s leading artists such as Barenboim, Bashmet, Caussé, Kavakos, Kirchschlager, Pletnev, Pressler, Thibaudet, Znaider, his brother Renaud and many others including those with whom he has recorded (see below).

In the 13/14 season, debuts include the Concertgebouw Orchestra/Bychkov, New York Philharmonic/ Boreyko and the Staatskapelle Dresden/Eschenbach in Dresden and the Salzburg Easter Festival. Other highlights include the Munich Philharmonic/Bychkov – both in Munich and at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest – with Sydney Symphony/Bringuier, Boston Symphony/Dutoit, Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Haitink in Amsterdam, Paris and the Lucerne Festival, with Mariinsky Orchestra/Gergiev at Salle Pleyel (Paris), NHK Symphony Orchestra/Dutoit, and in China with China Philharmonic and Guangzhou Symphony. In recital, Capuçon will perform with Frank Braley in the major venues in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Vienna and Seoul, and with Yuja Wang in a recital tour of Japan.

Capuçon records exclusively for Virgin Classics. His recordings include the Dvořák Concerto with Frankfurt Radio Symphony/Paavo Järvi, Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations and Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante with Mariinsky Theatre/Gergiev, the Brahms Double Concerto with his brother Renaud and Mahler Youth Orchestra/Chung, and the Haydn Cello Concertos with Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Harding. He has recorded several discs of chamber music with Martha Argerich, Frank Braley, Nicholas Angelich, Renaud and others, and the Rachmaninov and Prokofiev Cello Sonatas with Gabriela Montero. His next releases include a recital disc of music by Schubert, Schumann, Debussy, Britten and Carter with Frank Braley, and Saint-Saëns First Cello Concerto and Muse et le poète with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Bringuier, and earlier this year Deutsche Gramophone released a DVD featuring Capuçon as soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic/Dudamel in a live performance of Haydn’s first Cello Concerto.

As a partner of Gautier Capuçon, Colas co-produced, along with Virgin Classics, his latest recording with Gergiev and participated in the purchase of a Dominique Peccatte Bow. Since 2007 Gautier Capuçon has been an Ambassador for Zegna & Music project which was founded in 1997 as a philanthropic activity to promote music and its values. Gautier Capuçon plays a 1701 Matteo Goffriller.

Gautier Capuçon plays a 1701 Matteo Goffriller.

Frank Braley
was born in 1968, and began his piano studies at the age of four. Six years later he gave his first concert with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris, Salle Pleyel. In 1986 he decided to devote himself entirely to music and abandoned his studies in science. He entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and three years later he was awarded unanimously first prizes for piano and chamber music.

In 1991, at the age of 22, he took part for the first time in an international competition, the Queen Elizabeth Competition of Belgium and won the First Grand Prize. Public and press unanimously recognise him as a pianist with exceptional musical and poetic qualities.

Since then, Frank Braley has been regularly invited to Japan, Canada, the United States, and all over Europe, to play with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Orchestre de la Suisse-Romande, Orchestra della Swizzera Italiana, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Montpellier and Toulouse Orchestras, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Liège Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Residentie Den Haag Orchestra, Göteborg Symphony, Copenhagen Royal Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, BBC Wales Orchestra, the Royal Scottish Orchestra, the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester, the Boston Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Jean-Claude Casadesus, Stéphane Deneve, Charles Dutoit, Christopher Hogwood, Eliahu Inbal, Marek Janowski, Armin Jordan, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Antonio Pappano, Michel Plasson, Yutaka Sado, Michael Schonwandt, Walter Weller…

Frank BRALEY toured all over the world: in China with the Orchestre National de France under Charles Dutoit, Japan and China with the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse under Michel Plasson, with the Orchestre Français des Jeunes under Emmanuel Krivine in France and Italy, and again Italy with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. He gave recitals with the violinist Renaud Capuçon(Amsterdam, Athens,Birmingham, Firenze, Ferrara,New York, Washington,Paris, Vienna). He also participates in special projects, such as Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas Cycle (La Roque d’Anthéron, Paris, Bordeaux, Nantes, Grenoble, Rome, Tokyo and Brazil).

He played in recital in Paris, Londres, Amsterdam, Bruxelles, Hanovre, Ferrare, in duo with Renaud CAPUÇON in Amsterdam, Athènes, Birmingham, Bruxelles, Rome, Florence, Trieste, New York, Washington, Paris, Vienne… He use to play music chamber with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Maria Joao Pires, Augustin Dumay, Paul Meyer, Gérard Caussé, Eric Le Sage, Emmanuel Pahud, Mischa Maisky, Yuri Bashmet…

In January 2014 Frank Braley succeeded Augustin Dumay as chief-conductor at the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie (ORCW). 24 January 2015 they will open the new concert hall Alhambra in Mons. This will also be the official opening for Mons as the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2015.

For Harmonia Mundi he has recorded Schubert’s Sonata in A Major D. 959 and Klavierstücke D. 946 (for which he received the Diapason d’Or and has been compared to Claudio Arrau, Alfred Brendel, Radu Lupu, Andras Schiff...), Richard Strauss’ works for piano solo, and Beethoven’s Sonatas Clair de luneop.27 n°2, Appassionata op. 57 and op.110 (Harmonia Mundi), Gershwin’s complete piano music. For Virgin Classics he has recorded Ravel’s Chamber music with Renaud and Gautier CAPUçON, Saint Saens’ Carnaval des Animaux and Schubert’s Trout. BMG : Poulenc’sDouble Concerto with Eric Le Sage (Diapason d’Or). For Naïve DVD Liszt- Debussy-Gershwin (Choc - Monde de la Musique). For Virgin : Schubert’s Trios with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon. Last recording : Hungarian Dances with Nicholas Angelich.

Booklet for Shostakovich: Cello Concertos Nos 1 & 2