with deep gratitude to my dear friend roberto polo

W i t h d e e p g r at i t u d e t o m y d e a r f r i e n d
R o b e r t o P o l o f o r h i s s u p p o r t.
His love for music made this production possible.
RECORDING CONCERTOS
Keeping the Square Round
A concertante performance by its very nature involves many musicians who belong to a given orchestra, choir or large ensemble, and who
usually meet the soloist at a first rehearsal that is shortly before the performance. A concertante performance therefore tends to be more reactive and less
conceptual. The orchestra members (and at times even the conductor) merely
try to follow, “catch”, anticipate the next move; fit into the next moment. As a
result the overview of the piece is often lost.
However, even more discouraging is the general “averaging effect”
that occurs in the sound production. Especially modern recordings of concertos
tend to sound careful and hesitant. Although the sound of the orchestra is always healthy and voluminous, it mostly lacks the necessary edge, clear shape
and a penetrating quality.
3
Orchestral counterpoints and solo parts that need to create tension with and
be free of the rest of the texture, sound conformed and adaptive, often anemic
and loud.
Generally, hard edges, sudden movements and subtle differentiation,
whether in temporal or dynamic phrasing, become impossible. In fact, presenting such challenges to an orchestra is considered a lack of experience on the
soloist’s side.
Recording concertos in my experience could be compared to keeping
a sharp square round a smooth – a contradiction of terms: Orchestra members
are encouraged to interact and express: To implode, be off time, play against
each other and experiment with different sonorities and inconsistencies. This
expressive way of playing and interacting is then challenged by an unrealistically detailed interpretative concept that the conductor and I have prepared.
The deep conceptual work must be done on the side of the soloist and the conductor, in the hope that the orchestra members will follow and be convinced
by the resulting interpretative approach.
At least we enjoy the challenge!
Gavriel Lipkind
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Ce l l o H e r o i c s S e r i e s
A Soloist’s Diary
Cello Heroics recording series aims to become an exhaustive anthology of the
concertante repertoire for cello, but also serves as a kind of touring diary of
cellist Gavriel Lipkind.
“There is a reason why composers chose to write a concerto instead of a chamber work or a piece for a solo instrument. The concertante style in itself lends a
certain heroic framework to the music. In a concerto, the voice of the soloist is
superimposed to that of a group of players – an ensemble or an orchestra. This
superimposing implies, on one level or another, a certain “confrontation” of the
soloist “against” the group. Therefore, most concerti – or otherwise concertante
pieces – carry within them an intrinsic “heroic” quality resulting from the very
fact that the piece has been orchestrated as a concerto.” Gavriel Lipkind
one concerto
one cellist
one conductor
one orchestra
one album
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Cello Heroics was created to take a deeper look at the concertante
literature for cello: “The Heros of the Cello“.
It is a carefully planned recording series wherein every composition is seen
as a “Hero”, and each is celebrated as a stand alone production especially
planned to serve the needs of that work.
Gav r i e l L i p k i n d
Cello
An intellectual performer with an unparalleled technique and an immediately recognizable sound – a true virtuoso, whose interpretation is deeply
expressive and highly personal.
Gavriel Lipkind, born in Tel Aviv in 1977, enjoyed an early stellar rise to
international renown as a young cellist, before making the decision to rethink
a predefined life and halt a predictable path. He took a three-year long period
of retreat from stage life, during which he devoted himself to extensive further
studies and recording. Not satisfied with concertizing alone, and being a genuine
fanatic of audio documentation as an art form in its own right, Lipkind decided
to choose a radical path of innovation in his profession. Today Gavriel Lipkind
directs a specialist recording label – Lipkind Productions. Every aspect of his
various activities as a cellist, is an inseparable part of a larger plan to record cello
repertoire and publish related music editions and educational materials.
“… Lipkind played
with authority, most
impressive technique
and fine lyricism …”
The Washington Post
“Gavriel Lipkind … proves that he is certainly the
finest cellist playing today.” Bernard Greenhouse, 2006
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The recording activity therefore defines and determines all other
aspects of his career. The first and final goal, behind every composition he
undertakes to work on and perform, is the aim to record it.
Gavriel Lipkind has appeared in some of the world’s most prestigious
venues in recitals and with preeminent orchestras. The long list includes the
the Concertgebouw, Suntory Hall, Kennedy Center and Berlin Philharmonie,
and orchestras like the Israel Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic and the
Baltimore Symphony. He has worked alongside outstanding musicians – Zubin
Mehta, Philippe Entremont, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Yehudi Menuhin, Pinchas
Zukerman, Yuri Bashmet and Gidon Kremer.
An iconoclastic thinker Gavriel Lipkind is also fascinated by the continued evolution of the music industry, and the new creative possibilities it
“… Lipkind is a total one-off … he plays as if possessed …
This was edge-of-the seat, white knuckle playing …”
The Independent (five stars review)
“… a significant
percentage of listeners
left the hall in tears.”
The Strad
introduces to artists and audience. Above all however, it is the production of
unique recordings and the way they relate to his concert activities that has set
Lipkind apart in a niche of his own.
Gavriel Lipkind plays a unique Italian cello labeled (erroneously)
“Aloysius Michael Garani (Bologna, 1702)”. It is estimated, to have been completed in the years 1670-1680; An enigma which has come to be known as
“The Zihrhonheimer Cello”.
Andrea Kleibel
Wo jc i e c h R ode k
Conductor
Wojciech Rodek was born 1977 in Brzeg, Poland. He began to study
the piano at age eight. In 2003, he graduated, with a mention of excellence,
from the Conducting Department at the Wroclaw Academy of Music under
Professor Marek Pijarowski. Mo. Rodek received his doctoral degree in musical
arts from this Academy in 2007. He has moreover completed his studies in
Slavonic Studies at the University of Wroclaw.
In 2002, he won 2nd Prize at the “Witold Lutoslawski” Conductors
Competition in Bialystok and in 2005 went on to win an assistant-conductor
contest announced by the National Philharmonic of Warsaw.
Wojciech Rodek has conducted many European orchestras, including the Warsaw National Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestras, the Sinfonia
Varsovia Orchestra, the Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, the Polish National Radio
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Symphony Orchestra of Katowice, the Polish Radio Orchestra of Warsaw, the
Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra as well as philharmonic orchestras of Bydgoszcz,
Gdansk, Jelenia-Góra, Kielce, Koszalin, Lublin, Łódz, Płock, Poznan, Rzeszów,
Torun, Wroclaw and Zabrze.
Apart from the symphonic repertoire, opera occupies an important place in Mr.
Rodek’s activity. He serves as conductor with the Polish Opera Ensemble, with
whom he he appeared in Basel, Bern (Casino), Graz (Stephaniensaal), Hamburg
(Musikhalle), Leipzig (Gewandhaus), Munich (Philharmonie am Gasteig), Salzburg (Grosses Festspielhaus) annd Vienna (Konzerthaus).
15
Wojciech Rodek’s discography includes several recordings with the
Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Polish National
Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw.
He currently teaches orchestral conducting at the Musuc Academy in Wroclaw
and is Music Director of the Musical Theatre in Gliwice, Principal Conductor
of Lublin Philharmonic Orchestra and Guest Conductor of the Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz.
S i n f on i a Va r s ov i a
Orchestra
In April of 1984, the legendary violinist Yehudi Menuhin was invited
to Poland to perform as soloist and to conduct the Polish Chamber Orchestra.
In order to match the exigencies of the planned repertoire, the orchestra
increased the number of its members, inviting Poland’s finest musicians to
participate in the venture.
The first concerts conducted by Menuhin were enthusiastically received by audiences and appreciated by critics. Yehudi Menuhin accepted the proposition of Franciszek Wybranczyk, the ensemble’s general director, without hesitation, becoming
the chief guest conductor of the orchestra, which was named Sinfonia Varsovia.
Sinfonia Varsovia has performed in the world’s most celebrated concert
halls, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Théatre des Champs Elysées in Paris,
the Barbican Centre in London, Vienna’s Musikverein, Teatro Colon in Buenos
Aires, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Herkulessaal in Munich.
Marc Minkowski,
Music director
Krzysztof Penderecki,
Artistic director
Janusz Marynowski
General, Director
“... they are wonderful, they are one of the best orchestras,
not only in Poland. First class.” Martha Argerich
17
The orchestra played at renowned festivals in Salzburg, Gstaad (the Yehudi
Menuhin Festival), Aix-en-Provence, Montreux, La Roque d’Antheron, SchleswigHolstein, the Pablo Casals Festival, Würzburg, Alte Oper (Frankfurt am Mein),
the Sea Music Festival, the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, and many more.
The celebrated “La Folle Journée” music festival organised by the
French C.R.E.A. association and its director René Martin holds a special slot
in the orchestra’s performing calendar each season. Each year, the festival
adopts a different theme and is hosted by a different city around the world,
including Nantes, Bilbao,Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro. The festival is a unique
undertaking on a worldwide scale. In 2010 for the first time “La Folle Journée”
Festival will take place in Warsaw (June 11-13).
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“No orchestra work
I ever did has proven
as satisfactory as the
work I did as a soloist
and conductor for the
Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra.”
Yehudi Menuhin
Sinfonia Varsovia has performed with many distinguished conductors,
including Claudio Abbado, Gerd Albrecht, Charles Dutoit, Rafael Frühbeck de
Burgos, Hans Graf, Leopold Hager, Jacek Kaspszyk, Kazimierz Kord, Jan Krenz,
Emmanuel Krivine,Witold Lutosławski, Paul McCreesh, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Yehudi
Menuhin, Marc Minkowski, Grzegorz Nowak, Krzysztof Penderecki, Michel
Plasson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Volker Schmidt-Gertenbach, Jerzy Semkow,
Antoni Wit and Bruno Weil.
During its numerous concerts, the orchestra has accompanied such renowned
soloists as Salvatore Accardo, Piotr Anderszewski, Maurice André, Martha
Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, Teresa Berganza, Rafał Blechacz, Alfred Brendel, Piotr
Paleczny, José Carreras, Sarah Chang, Kyung-Wha Chung, José Cura, Placido
Domingo, Augustin Dumay, Nelson Freire, James Galway, Fou Ts’ong, Sharon
Kam, Kiri Te Kanawa, Nigel Kennedy, Gidon Kremer, Alicia de Larrocha, Elisabeth
Leonskaja, Christa Ludwig, Radu Lupu, Albrecht Mayer, Mischa Maisky, Yehudi
21
Menuhin, Shlomo Mintz, Olli Mustonen, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Olga Pasiecznik,
Murray Perahia, Maria João Pires, Ivo Pogorelic, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Vadim
Repin, Katia Ricciarelli, Mstislav Rostropovich, Heinrich Schiff, Howard Shelley,
Henryk Szeryng, Maxim Vengerov, Andreas Vollenweider, Christian Zacharias,
Frank Peter Zimmermann, Tabea Zimmermann and Grigori Zhyslin.
Sinfonia Varsovia has made numerous recordings on compact disc
and for radio and television. The orchestra boasts a discography of more than
200 albums, recorded for famous international labels: Deutsche Grammophon,
Decca, Sony, EMI, Virgin Classics, Naxos and Denon Nippon Columbia, as well
as for Polish labels, including CD Accord, Polskie Nagrania, BeArTon, DUX and
Polskie Radio. Many of these recordings received prestigious music awards,
including the Diapason d’Or, Grand Prix du Disque, and, on more than one
occasion, the Polish “Fryderyk” award.
Krzysztof Penderecki became the orchestra’s musical director in 1997
and its artistic director in July 2003, a position he still holds, often also working
together with the ensemble as its conductor. The orchestra performs in Poland
and abroad, playing many works by the composer.
In June 2008 the post of the orchestra’s musical director was given to the
world-famous French conductor Marc Minkowski.
The Sinfonia Varsovia Foundation was established in the year 2000 by
Franciszek Wybranczyk. The foundation initiates and supports the orchestra’s
artistic endeavours. It promotes in particular Polish composers and young talents
and organises the annual Sinfonia Varsovia To Its City festival. The activities of
the Sinfonia Varsovia Foundation are supported by the Polservice Patent and
Trademark Attorneys’ Office and by the BHP Bank.
23
In 2004, Franciszek Wybranczyk handed over the duties of the director
of Sinfonia Varsovia to Janusz Marynowski – his assistant and long-time musician in the orchestra.
Until 31 December 2007, the orchestra operated from the St. I. Witkiewicz
STUDIO Art Centre in Warsaw. On 1 January 2008, the Sinfonia Varsovia
Orchestra became a council cultural institution. The Orchestra’s coordinator is
the Capital City of Warsaw.
Di m i t r i S ho s ta kov ic h
Cello Concerto #1
Op.107 in E-flat Major
1. Allegretto 2. Moderato 3. Cadenza – attacca 4. Allegro con moto
Like so many recent cello concertos, Shostakovich’s two were composed
for his close friend Mstislav Rostropovich, whose legendary musicality was deployed
in his service from the outset: he memorised the fiendishly difficult solo
part in four days. The first playthrough, with Shostakovich at the piano, was
celebrated with much vodka. ‘Slava’, as everyone called Rostropovich, played
the premiere under the baton of Yevgeny Mravinsky in the Large Hall of the
Leningrad Conservatoire on 4 October 1959.
The work opens with a motive related to Shostakovich’s ‘musical
initials’, DSCH (in German notation; D, E flat, C, B natural in British and American),
alternating with a rhythmic motif in the woodwind which pervades the score;
it nods to the DSCH theme just before the second subject is introduced. That
rhythmic motif has its origins in Shostakovich’s 1948 score for the film The
Young Guard, at the point where a group of young Soviet soldiers are led away
25
to execution by the Nazis. A third theme quotes Mussorgsky: the folk-inspired
lullaby which Death sings to a sick child in the first of the Songs and Dances
of Death – which Shostakovich was to orchestrate three years later. The Allegretto twists these elements around as in a kaleidoscope, in a sardonic march,
its liveliness perhaps a deliberate element of tension with the references to
death. The remaining three movements are played without a break.
The Moderato begins as an extended elegy, its slow waltz-like theme
(the lullaby figure from the first movement) initiated by the solo horn – the only
brass instrument in the orchestra – before the soloist picks it up and discusses
it with the orchestra. The cello enters with another theme from a folk song.
The mood gradually becomes more disturbed, but the horn again calms the
resulting climax with the lullaby figure. The same structural sequence repeats
in the development. Here new and old materials are introduced and altered
and mixed into a massive tutti. The explosion into the timpani is calmed down
by the horn again. The cello then states the initial tune in spectral harmonics
supported by the celesta – one of Shostakovich’s frequent masterstrokes of
orchestration.
The cadenza, which forms the entire third movement and further develops all materials from the first and second movement, introduces a pizzicato
theme which is always preceded and followed by silence. The Cadenza results
in a kind of a “madness scene” typical to Shostakovitch’s orchestral works.
The finale opens with another allusion to the Songs and Dances of
Death – the Trepak in which Death encourages a peasant, wandering drunk
through a snowstorm, to curl up in sleep; Shostakovich then distorts the Georgian
folksong, ‘Suliko’ – sweet revenge, since this was Stalin’s favourite tune, one
27
with which the composer had already made hay in his secret, satirical chamber
cantata Rayok. Throughout the Concerto Shostakovich makes much use of solo
thwacks from the timpani, emulating Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante, a work
with whose birth Rostropovich was directly associated, so the sound itself acts
as a double hommage, and it is to the timpani that the cello delegates the
closing of the piece.
Martin Anderson
LIPKIND PRODUCTIONS
Objects of Desire
Lipkind Productions is a conceptually driven recording label and production company founded by cellist Gavriel Lipkind. It is dedicated to one of
the most fundamental building blocks of human experience: The process of
grasping, capturing and communicating an abstract idea.
“An idea, by it’s very nature, cannot be communicated without losing some of its
original quality. In a studio recording, where the eventual listener is not part of
the resonating space; the musical idea is put into sound in an isolated environment where the performer is alone with the instrument and microphones.
To quote Glenn Gould, ‘Recording is a one-to-zero relationship’. A recording production is therefore a unique opportunity for a performer to document her ideas
about a given composition in their purest form.” Gavriel Lipkind
All aspects of each stage of every project are executed by a staff of creative
directors who take an active interest in the connected work of their colleagues.
As a result, the programmatic study, the derived interpretative approach, performance, editing process, mastering, design and promotion all happen as one
homogenous process.
31
Si nf o n i a Va r s o v i a O r c h es tra
Collaborating Members
1 st V i o l i n
2 nd V i o l i n
Viola
Cello
Jakub Haufa
Artur Gadzała
Łukasz Turcza
Anna Gotartowska
Edyta Czyzewska
Krzysztof Oczko
Agnieszka Zdebska
Magdalena
Pokrzywinska
Andrzej Staniewicz
Pawel Maslanka
Zbigniew Wytrykowski
Paweł Gadzina
Grzegorz Kozłowski
(Librarian)
Krystyna WalkiewiczRzeczycka
Bogusław Powichrowski
Artur Konowalik
(Orch. Speaker and
Art. Coord.)
Robert Dabrowski
Anna Wybranczykc
(hired for this recording)
Artur Paciorkiewicz
Grzegorz Stachurski
Włodzimierz Zurawski
Janusz Biezynski
Jacek Nycz
Małgorzata Szczepanska
Dariusz Kisielinski
Jerzy Klocek
Katarzyna Drzewiecka
Ewa Wasiółka
Piotr Krzemionka
Kamil Mysinski
Konrad Bukowian
Double Bass
Krzysztof Mróz
Marek Bogacz
Karol Kinal
Radoslaw Nur
(hired for this recording)
Con ductor
soloist
Gen era l Director
Wojciech Rodek
Gavriel Lipkind
Janusz Marynowski
33
Flute
Bassoon
T i m pa n i
Andrzej Krzyzanowski
(Orch. Speaker)
Hanna Turonek
Zbigniew Płuzek
Wiesław Wołoszynek
Piotr Kostrzewa
Oboe
Adam Szlezak
Konrad Mika
Clarinet
Aleksander Romanski
Dariusz Wybranczyk
Radoslaw Soroka
Horn
Henryk Kowalewicz
Roman Sykta
Trumpet
Jakub Waszczeniuk
Andrzej Tomczok
C e l e s ta
Agnieszka Kopacka
(hired for this recording)
Instrument
Gavriel Lipkind plays a unique Italian cello labeled “Aloysius Michael Garani (Bologna, 1702)” estimated, however, to have been completed in the years 16701680. An enigma which has come to be known as “The Zihrhonheimer cello”.
Recording
Recording Producer Christoph Claßen Recording Engineer Julita
Emanuilow Executive Producer Gavriel Lipkind General Manager and
Director, Lipkind Productions Andrea Kleibel Manager, Advisor and
Coordinator Florentine Gallwas Advisor Carolyn Steinbeck Recording
Location Witold Lutoslawski Concert Hall of the Polish Radio Sound Encoding
Robin Schmidt 24/96 Mastering, Germany
Object
Designed by alessandri-design.at Production Jan Scheffler printsprofessional.de Text Editing Martin Andersen, Andrea Kleibel Photography
Marco Borggreve Disc Manufacturing interdisc-berlin.de
P
&
C
2006 Gavriel Lipkind
The Zihrhonheimer Cello
could become an
inseparable part of
Mr. Lipkind’s music
making thanks to the
support of M. & D. P.
S single-voice polyphony
C chamber music
H cello heroics
single voice
polyphony
cello
heroics
#S01
#H01
chamber
music
#C01
GAVRIEL LIPKIND cello
WOJCIECH RODEK conductor
SINFONIAVARSOVIA
SHOSTAKOVICH
CELLO CONCERTO #1 OP. 107 IN E-FLAT MAJOR
GAVRIEL LIPKIND cello
MISHA KATZ conductor
SINFONIA VARSOVIA
GAVRIEL LIPKIND
BACH
6 SUITES A VIOLONCELLO SOLO
SENZA BASSO
GAVRIEL LIPKIND cello
ALEXANDRA LUBCHANSKY piano
MINIATURES
&FOLKLORE
R. SCHUMANN
CONCERTO FOR CELLO & ORCHESTRA
OP. 129 IN A MINOR
cello
heroics
23 CHALLENGES FOR CELLO & PIANO
#H02
chamber
music
#C02
single voice
polyphony
cello
heroics
#S02
#H03
cello
heroics
#H04
MEMBERS OF THE
GAVRIEL LIPKIND
GEORGY
LIGETI
SONATA FOR CELLO SOLO
LIPKIND
CONSORTIUM
NEW
WORLDS
WORKS BY BLOCH BRITTEN
RACHMANINOFF
STRAVINSKY & DVORAK
GAVRIEL LIPKIND cello
ANTONY HERMUS conductor
SINFONIAVARSOVIA
C. SAINT-SAENS
CELLO CONCERTO #1 OP. 33 A MINOR
LiPkind PRodUCTionS — oBJECTS oF dESiRE
Find the complete product line of Lipkind Productions at www.LiPkind.inFo
All recordings are available digitally for download also as high resolution and surround.
Many titles are available as special exclusive editions and sheet music bundles.
GAVRIEL LIPKIND cello
IVAN MEYLEMANS conductor
HET GELDERS ORKEST
ERNST V.
DOHNANYI
KONZERTSTÜCK FOR CELLO
& ORCHESTRA OP. 12
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