Vanaf de jaren dertig geldt in de Sovjet Unie regels waaraan een muziekwerk dient te voldoen. Dmitri Shostakovich kwam in 1936 fors met deze regels in aanvaring. Met het overlijden van Stalin in 1953 kwam een einde aan deze angstige periode. Het vioolconcert is één van de weinig grote werken uit deze periode. Sofia Gubaidulina krijgt in 1959 van Shostakovich de hoogste waardering voor haar eindexamen. Hij moedigt haar aan om origineel te blijven. Deze opmerking inspireert Gubaidulina om originele werken te schrijven. Samen met Reinbert de Leeuw en het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest speelt Simone Lamsma live het vioolconcert uit 2007, dat Gubaidulina voor Anne-Sophie Mutter schreef. Eerder nam de perfect spelende Lamsma met James Gaffigan het Vioolconcert van Sostakovich op.
Shostakovich & Gubaidulina: Violin Concerto & In tempus praesens
Gubaidulina:
In tempus praesens - Concerto for violin and orchestra
Shostakovich:
Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 99
The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Simone Lamsma
The structure of Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto is particularly original, with a sequence of four movements – slow, fast, slow, fast – entitled Nocturne, Scherzo, Passacaglia and Burlesque. The opening movement (Nocturne) is a beautiful song, blossoming from a single melodic fragment.
The Scherzo is biting and dazzlingly virtuosic, like a carousel gone wild. The ensuing Passacaglia is, quite simply, the pinnacle of this concerto; a masterpiece – mature, elegiac and highly lyrical. The passacaglia theme is repeated nine times with contrapuntal elaborations. This is followed by a large-scale cadenza that forms a bridge to the finale. The concerto closes with a Burlesque, in which the theme from the Passacaglia has one final, piercing reappearance.
Shortly after the première of Gubaidulina’s Offertorium (1981), the Swiss patron of the arts Paul Sacher asked her to compose a further violin concerto for the German soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter, but nothing came of this due to lack of time. It was only in 2007, eight years after Sacher’s death, that Gubaidulina completed In tempus praesens, which was given its première by Mutter at the Lucerne Festival. It is a work of extreme contrasts in which very deep, infernal passages are juxtaposed with extremely high, celestial episodes. Much more so than Offertorium, In tempus praesens is a spectacular work for the violinist, who plays virtually from start to finish and barely has a chance to pause for breath. The virtuosity demanded by the work is never an end in itself.
Pizzicato on Lamsa’s first release on Challenge Classics (CC 72677): "The surround recording from Challenge Classics stands out due to especially brilliant and powerful interpretations and a finely coordinated dialogue between the instruments. This is perfect harmony."
