SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Sonata in D Minor, Op. 40; BRAHMS: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87 – Daniel Shafran, cello/Lydia Pecherskaya, piano (Shostakovich)/ Gary Graffman, piano/ Berl Senofsky, violin/Shirley Trepel, cello 
- HDTT

by | Nov 17, 2009 | Classical Reissue Reviews | 0 comments

SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Sonata in D Minor, Op. 40; BRAHMS: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87 – Daniel Shafran, cello/Lydia Pecherskaya, piano (Shostakovich)/ Gary Graffman, piano/ Berl Senofsky, violin/Shirley Trepel, cello 


HDTT CDHD184, 51:47 ****[avail. as CD-R, HQCD, DVD-R or 192K download] {www.highdeftapetransfers.com/]:


Two disparate RCA recordings grace this curio among HDTT restorations, the 1961 Shostakovich Sonata and the 1964 Brahms Trio, both from 4-track prerecorded tape. The Brahms I recall as a particularly short-lived RCA LP (LM 2715) that had the Beethoven Kakadu Variations as its complementary piece. When Gary Graffman visited Atlanta for a concert, he expressed his desire to secure a copy. Berl Senofsky (1926-2002) at the time still gleaned renown for his conquest of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in 1955, having then recorded a fabulous version of the Brahms Violin Concerto with Rudolf Moralt in Vienna for Epic.

Russian cellist Daniel Shafran (1923-1997) represents a stellar personality in music entirely his own. His Melodiya survey of the Beethoven sonatas still commands a cult following. Sporting a vivid sensuous tone, an especial sense of rubato, and powerful bowing technique, he inspired all sorts of compositions by contemporary composers like Kabelevsky. His recording with the composer of the Shostakovich Sonata became a benchmark for future inscriptions.  Here he finds more than capable assistance from pianist Lydia Pecherskaya, who often delivers the sprightly figures of the last movement in a “perpetuum mobile” manner fully reminiscent of the Shostakovich Op. 35 Piano Concerto. If the first movement proceeds in a lyrically somber manner, the Scherzo rails with irony, employing motifs from Jewish or Klezmer music that hammer impetuously except when interrupted by the trio and the cello’s flageolet passages. Shafran sings through his Amati most eloquently in the Largo, whose thematic material anticipates the restrained passions in the B Minor 6th Symphony. Spice and ice characterize the last movement Allegro, a rondo in rapid colors, brilliantly resonant in the Weiss remastering process that makes the HDTT experience consistently compelling.

The 1882 Brahms Trio in C first caught my ear on old 78 rpm with Myra Hess, Jelly d’Aranyi, and Gaspar Cassado, yet to be restored to the active CD medium. Shirley Trepel’s cello proves resonant and deeply responsive to then husband Berl Senofsky’s richly nuanced tone. The third movement in C Minor, a ghostly affair easily “stolen” from Mendelssohn in one of his fairy moods, shimmers with electric energy. That same movement releases a veritable passion of melody in its trio section. But the heart of the music lies in the A Minor second movement, a theme and variations that allows the ensemble to indulge in stylistic colors–especially Hungarian–to their full advantage. Graffman proves himself a formidable chamber music executant, at a time when his first solo album for CBS–the Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (ML 5791)–had also caused a minor sensation. The logic of this coupling may be elusive, but the musical results justify placing it high on the record shelf for oft-traversed musical reference.

— Gary Lemco

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