GREAT RECORDINGS phase 17

PROKOFIEV
Sinfonia concertante

MIASKOVSKY
Cello Concerto

Mstislav Rostropovich
Sir Malcolm Sargent
Royal Philharmonic & Philharmonia Orchestras

3 80013 2

Stereo / Mono
ADD

Recorded 1957 & 1959
74 minutes

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"Rostropovich’s advocacy of these two concertos is most eloquent; the Miaskovsky is beautifully performed and in the Prokofiev the cellist’s playing shows off to perfection his beautiful tone and masterly, infallible technique."
(The Gramophone)

These recording were indirectly the work of Nikita Khruschev, whose post-Stalin liberalisation meant the young Mstislav Rostropovich could travel to and record in the West.

Thus it was that in 1955 the virtuoso cellist, with his KGB ‘accompanist’, was introduced by EMI to Sir Malcolm Sargent. Over the next two years the recorded the works presented here.

Prokofiev reworked the Sinfonia concertante from his Op.58 cello concerto expressly for Rostropovich, who introduced it in Moscow in 1952 with, intriguingly, the pianist Sviatoslav Richter as conductor. This CD restores the Rachmaninov Vocalise, which was a bonus item on the original LP of the Miaskovsky.