The Arts Desk (UK)

Kabalevsky: Cello Concerto No. 2, Schumann: Cello Concerto Theodor Lyngstad (cello), Copenhagen Phil/Eva Ollikainen (OUR Recordings)
This disc’s sleeve note suggests that Kabalevsky’s Cello Concerto No. 2 “owes an obvious debt to the composer’s colleague and one-time neighbour Dmitri Shostakovich”. It does indeed, several passages sounding like direct pastiche. That doesn’t make the work any less enjoyable and entertaining, the first movement’s “Allegro molto e energico” section very similar in tone to the opening movement of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1. Though Kabalevsky begins his 1964 work very differently, with a brooding slow introduction full of lonely wind solos and ominous pedal notes. An edgy central scherzo features a prominent part for solo saxophone before the finale opens wistfully, introspection finally winning out over extroversion. This concerto deserves to be better known, and Danish cellist Theodor Lyngstad makes a persuasive case for it. Eva Ollikainen’s Copenhagen Phil relish the black humour, with pointed contributions from bassoons and horns.
The coupling is Schumann’s late Cello Concerto, Lyngstad pointing out that this is another emotionally complex work in three linked movements, a piece “where happiness seems never to have been far away from despair.” As with Schumann’s Piano Concerto, there’s no long tutti introduction, the cello entering in the fifth bar with a sinuous cantabile theme. Light scoring means that the soloist is never swamped by orchestral forces and Lyngstad’s performance often feels like chamber music, especially in the brief slow movement. He’s marvellous in the little accompanied cadenza near the close of the finale, Schumann’s shift into sunny A major a real feelgood moment. Graham Rickson
https://theartsdesk.com/classical-music/classical-cds-shrouds-silhouettes-and-superstition