Literary critics use the notion of the "anxiety of influence" to describe the predicament of artists who have to contend the presence of an overwhelmingly powerful model, like Brahms vis-ā-vis Beethoven, for example, or any cellist performing Russian repertory after Mstislav Rostropovich. Cellist Alban Gerhardt refers to his efforts to get away from Rostropovich in a short note included with this release, and his efforts are most audible in the matter of tempo. He takes the opening movement of the Cello Concerto No. 2 in G ...
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Literary critics use the notion of the "anxiety of influence" to describe the predicament of artists who have to contend the presence of an overwhelmingly powerful model, like Brahms vis-ā-vis Beethoven, for example, or any cellist performing Russian repertory after Mstislav Rostropovich. Cellist Alban Gerhardt refers to his efforts to get away from Rostropovich in a short note included with this release, and his efforts are most audible in the matter of tempo. He takes the opening movement of the Cello Concerto No. 2 in G major, Op. 126, at a much-quicker-than-usual clip, offering a new interpretation of Shostakovich's enigmatic metronome markings. The trouble with this is that this brings his reading in at about two and a half minutes shorter than Rostropovich's recordings, and also than that of Heinrich Schiff with Maxim Shostakovich conducting. (Other cellists have taken it even more slowly.) His reading lends the movement a nervous quality, which makes sense in the abstract but brings the three...
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![Shostakovich: Cello Concertos [Alban Gerhardt; Wdr Sinfonieorchester; Jukka-Pekka Saraste] [Hyperion: Cda68340]](https://www3.alibris-static.com/cover/o64582bptqt_t.jpg)
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