The three works gathered here date from Sergei Prokofiev’s last years. Despite his declining health and the oppressive political climate, the composer could count on the support of great musicians, in particular the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. This relationship contributed to the writing of works for cello. The first was the Symphony-Concerto, an improved reworking of a much earlier cello concerto. As in all of Prokofiev’s large-scale compositions, we find striking gestures of contrast and confrontation, disturbing juxtapositions of mood, powerful rhetoric followed by sudden passages of tender reflection.
The Sonata for Cello Solo is an unfinished work: a broad and eloquent Andante is heard here in the completion by Vladimir Blok. Finally, the solemn and poetic Sonata for Cello and Piano seems like an oasis of serenity in the midst of the Soviet dictatorship. In a clear form devoid of anything that might have shocked the authorities, the work belongs to Prokofiev’s best compositions thanks to its wealth of melody, from beginning to end. Technical challenges are not absent, as demonstrated by the huge range of cello techniques.
Performed by Christian Poltéra, these three works bear witness to Prokofiev’s creative vitality in the evening of his life, expressed in a simple, clear musical language linked to a new sense of vitality in the face of adversity.
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