 KABALEVSKY Cello Concerto No 2. SCHUMANN Cello Concerto  Eva Ollikainen, cond; Theodor Lyngstad (vc); Copenhagen Phil  OUR Recordings 8.226926 (52:39) Reviewed from a WAV download: 96 kHz/24-bit

Thanks to the scholarship of the last thirty years or so, we know that life as a composer in the Soviet Union was one of a precarious balancing of ambiguous positions. It's perhaps not surprising then that Theodor Lyngstad, the talented soloist on this new recording of Dmitry Kabalevsky's Second Cello Concerto, thinks he hears definite elements of subversion in the work, one of the major compositions of a composer who was, for the most part, a recognized establishment figure.
Whatever the true sentiments underlying the Concerto, I’d argue it deserves richer recorded representation (although be aware that a glance at the Fanfare Archive will show some divergent views as to its merits). True, we're lucky to have an account recorded by the cellist who gave the first performance, Danil Shafran, conducted by Kabalevsky himself (originally Melodyia now on Cello Classics CC1008). This is a fascinating document but one marred by "vintage" Soviet era sound and lapses of ensemble. Of more modern performances Alexander Rudin's on Naxos (8.553788) is the one I have listened to most often, but he can sound tentative and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra under Igor Golovschin occasionally insensitive.
This new deeply felt and expressive performance by Lyngstad with a fine sounding Copenhagen Phil under Eva Ollikainen is, therefore, welcome. He understands the work's originality and heritage. He inhabits with sympathy the transitory persona portrayed by the soloist with the attendant mood swings and has the technical ability to make the instant switches from the simple sounding to the virtuosic to reflect them. Take the atmospheric opening of the concerto where the soloist plays pizzicato passages against swirling and increasingly nervy strings. Lyngstad articulates and projects these plucked notes in an unshowy fashion and then makes the first of the work's many shifts with ease, here to a technically demanding, deeply lyrical lament in the higher registers of the cello.
In his liner note Lyngstad mentions the inspiration of the Cello Concerto by Kabalevsky's teacher, Myaskovsky, in the same key of C minor. You can hear this throughout. Also, perhaps inevitably, the influence of both Shostakovich concertos. In no other recording I've listened to for example, has the debt to Shostakovich's First been brought out so thrillingly by the soloist in the second movement of the Kabalevsky than here. I should add that in this talk of influence it would be wrong to underplay Kabalevsky's originality. Just listen to the saxophone solo at the start of that same movement. A striking demonstration of an individual voice.
The draw for me to this recording was the Kabalevsky and I wasn't disappointed, this would be my recommended recording now. But that isn't to underplay Lyngstad's beautiful performance of the Schumann. In a much more crowded field in recording terms, he gives a highly sympathetic and deeply thought through account, which coming second on the program provides what to me at least was an unexpectedly congruent pairing (it turns out both concertos have three continuous movements, written out cadenzas and move from minor to major). As in the Kabalevsky, the orchestral playing in the Schumann is excellent and Eva Ollikainen a highly sympathetic collaborator. The OUR engineers have provided them with superb, recorded sound. Dominic Hartley.

Four stars: A rewarding and original pairing of Kabalevsky and Schumann cello concertos.