“I feel like I’m giving away a spoiler!” reveals Steven Isserlis conspiratorially. “It’s got this amazing moment at the beginning of the second movement where the alto saxophone has this a huge solo. I always ask the saxophonist to stand up for it. It really hits the audience between the eyes!” We’re talking about Dmitry Kabalevsky’s Second Cello Concerto, which Isserlis is playing with Mario Venzago and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in December and it’s clear he’s a fan.
“It’s very exciting to play, so original. Of course it’s hard, but it’s not ridiculously hard because it’s so idiomatically written for the cello. Audiences enjoy it, orchestras enjoy it, conductors enjoy it and I enjoy it… so I don’t know why it’s not played more often!”
Apart from the occasional Galop from The Comedians or the overture to Colas Breugnon, there’s not a lot of Kabalevsky programmed in concert halls today. A pupil of Nikolai Myaskovsky, Kabalevsky was a contemporary of Shostakovich, but rather in his shadow… and rather more adroit at keeping his nose clean. He initially appeared on the 1948 Zhdanov Decree, which denounced composers including Shostakovich and Prokofiev as formalists, but he managed to have his name removed pretty swiftly.
“Some Russians won’t hear his name spoken!” says Isserlis. “People who knew him say he was complicated, and many Russians travelling abroad wouldn’t programme his music. I first got to know this concerto because it was written for one of my cello heroes, Daniil Shafran. I first heard it on record when I was a teenager and completely fell in love with it. But much later I came to the sonata that was written for Mstislav Rostropovich – that’s comparatively recent in my repertoire, about six or seven years ago – and it’s an equally wonderful piece. I recorded it with Olli Mustonen, who also loves it.
“I do think Kabalevsky is unfairly neglected. Both these pieces – the sonata and the second concerto – have soft endings, which might not help their chances of being programmed. I played the concerto quite recently in London with the Philharmonia and Jakub Hrůša. I’ve also played it this year in the US and Spain, so occasionally I can persuade people to take it on, so I’m pleased to be able to play it in Singapore.”
The concerto is in C minor, in three movements, and has an unusual slow-fast-slow structure – “a bit like Shostakovich 2” – linked by cadenzas so that it plays without a break (attacca). It opens with a mysterious pizzicato melody – “shocking, isn’t it?” – and at the centre of the first movement is a sudden eruption from the cello before a melancholy theme and a long cadenza. The Presto marcato second movement is aggressively announced by the saxophone, whose theme is taken up by the cello in a busy perpetuum mobile, stopped in its tracks by forceful brass. Another cadenza leads to a lyrical Andante con molto, “a beautiful melody,” says Isserlis, “where Kabalevsky said he wanted people to think of something very good”. Kabalevsky quickens the pace and references material from the earlier movements before ending the concerto quietly.
Was Kabelevsky writing for Shafran’s sound? “Yes, because he had recorded the First Cello Concerto, which he made sound like a masterpiece when it actually is not! It’s a good piece but it’s nothing like as good as the Second. And I think that Kabalevsky was so impressed that he must have had Shafran’s sound in his mind as he composed.” Isserlis points me towards a video of the concerto’s 1965 world premiere, where Daniil Shafran joined the Leningrad Philharmonic, with the composer himself conducting.
“Among cellists these days, Shafran’s reputation has risen and risen,” says Isserlis. “When they were both alive, Rostropovich was hugely famous while Shafran was stuck out in the suburbs of Moscow. I went to his apartment once, a big unfriendly looking building which was a huge contrast with Rostropovich’s houses all over the world.
“I was first introduced to Shafran on LP by my teacher, Jane Cowan, when I was about 12. I immediately fell in love with his playing. I was always in love with his playing. It’s not just the sound – although his sound was amazing – it was the sheer honesty, the sheer sincerity of his playing and the elegance, the warmth and the passion, rubatos and yes, the amazing sound. He was like a Russian folk singer who happened to play the cello.”
Isserlis was such a fan that he helped bring Shafran to London for a recital at Wigmore Hall in 1995. “I was sitting watching a video of Shafran with Olli – we've been friends for about 40 years, and finding out that we were both Shafran fans provided yet another bond between us in the early years – and I was bemoaning the fact that I'd almost certainly never hear Shafran live. Then Olli said, ‘Why not? We could make it happen.’ And so we did. We brought him over and it was amazing – controversial by then because his playing had got quite exaggerated in his late years, but it still had some incredible moments.”
There’s always a danger in imprinting on the first recording you hear of a work, even more so for a performer. Did Isserlis purposely avoid Shafran’s recording of Kabalevsky’s concerto when he was learning it? “Definitely. I’d heard it enough,” he agrees. “Always, when I play Russian music, it’s obvious that I love Shafran, even in pieces he didn’t play, like the Prokofiev Cello Concerto, Op.58. Or the Kabalevsky sonata, which Shafran didn’t record but at least I did, under his influence!”
Isserlis last played with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 2017. He has fond memories of the orchestra and of Singapore itself. “I’ve been to Singapore many times,” he enthuses, “I love it. The orchestra is excellent, very warm. I've always loved being in Singapore. People are so warm and friendly. And I loved the food! The very first time I was there, I remember that after the concert, some friends brought me food from all over the city – various different styles of cooking – and it was incredible! More recently, I've been looked after my friend Goh Yew Lin.
“On this visit, I'll actually be in Singapore for my birthday, and it's a free night, so months ago, I wrote to Yew Lin asking if I could spend my birthday evening at his house. A bit forward of me, but to my delight he agreed. And I'll have my partner with me; her father was a French chef, so she really appreciates good food – I'm hoping for a memorable evening. But it's not just the food in Singapore that I love! Everything about the place is so special, including the audiences, of course.
Before then, another of Isserlis’ great loves – Gabriel Fauré – will be celebrated at Wigmore Hall in November. “I’ve been doing lots of chamber music this summer with my partners in musical crime, Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk. And now we have Team Fauré with whom we’ve just been playing in Tsinandali and we’re coming to Wigmore for five nights – that’s with Irène Duval and Blythe Engstroem and Connie Shih, with whom I’ve played a lot of Fauré. Team Fauré is taking over the Wigmore for five stressful nights!”
What is it he so loves about Fauré’s music? “The radiance, the ecstasy, the classicism and romanticism, the incredible sense of flying that you feel in his music. There’s just nothing prosaic, it’s all on an elevated level, especially in the later music, which I just adore. I think we all do. It’s the late music that had us absolutely falling in love with Fauré: the second piano quintet, the piano trio – if I had to choose just one piece of his, it might well be that – the string quartet, which is so touching…”
I remark how Fauré’s music is often sidelined in concert programmes in favour of Debussy and Ravel. “There’s a letter from Fauré to the pianist Alfred Cortot which I often quote,” Isserlis recalls. “It says ‘I notice you play a lot of Debussy and Ravel and not much of my music. If you think me inferior to them, you are more modest on my behalf than I am myself.’” Isserlis chuckles.
“Five nights running though,” he gulps, “with ridiculously long programmes. I’m going to be in such disgrace with everybody!” I somehow suspect they’ll forgive him.
Steven Isserlis performs Kabalevsky’s Second Cello Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra on 20th December.
This article was sponsored by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
