Malipiero, Ghedini & Casella: Works for Cello & Orchestra

Featuring

Nikolay Shugaev
Valentin Uryupin
Dmitrii Prokofiev
Rostov Academic Symphony Orchestra
Gian Francesco Malipiero
Giorgio Federico Ghedini

Alfredo Casella

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Recording & Production

Nikolay Shugaev, one of the cellists on this album, plays a cello made by Igor Moroder specifically for this recording.

Compositional Technique

The works on this album are more like a Baroque concerto grosso than a 19th-century concerto, with solo cellos acting as "first among equals" in dialogue with the orchestra.

Composer Biography

Alfredo Casella, a composer on this album, came from a patriarchal line of gifted cellists, including his father Carlo, who played Bach's solo Cello Suites daily.

Composer Biography

All three featured composers — Gian Francesco Malipiero, Giorgio Federico Ghedini, and Alfredo Casella — had close family connections to the cello, influencing their special sympathy for the instrument.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Gian Francesco Malipiero described all his concertos as "orations," where a voice rises and the orchestra follows like a crowd listening, avoiding rhetoric and virtuosity.

Performer Biography

Valentin Uryupin, the conductor on this album, was formerly an international clarinettist and won First Prize at the 8th Sir Georg Solti International Conductors' Competition in 2017.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Giorgio Federico Ghedini, the composer of L'Olmeneta, intentionally avoided soloistic virtuosity in his cello works, preferring them to be playable by orchestral cellos.