Alexey Shor (b.1970)
Composer’s Notebook, Vol. 6
Cello Concertos (cello and string orchestra) Nos. 2 (2022) and 3 (2023)
Humoresque (2019)
Two Songs for My Kids (2013 rev. 2022)
Narek Hakhnazaryan (cello); Dmitry Yablonsky (cello)
Kyiv Virtuosi/Daniel Raiskin; Sergey Smbatyan
rec. Teatro Marrucino, Chieti, Italy, March 2023
Naxos 8.579144 [60]

This makes for my first acquaintance with the music of Ukrainian composer, Alexey Shor. Going by his numerous Naxos discs, he sees his music under an ‘arch’. Each Naxos CD collection of his output is under the banner of a Notebook, of which this is number six. Calling each instalment a Notebook seems modest – if the translation from Ukrainian is a faithful read-across.

Each of these two Cello Concertos is for the solo instrument and a string ensemble and each is in three movements. His writing is cool, calm and collected. Shor is no avant-gardista. The composer is in his mid- to late-fifties and everything here was written during the last ten years or so. Shor left his homeland for the United States to study mathematics and we are told that he currently resides in New York.

Cello Concerto No. 1 can be heard on another Naxos disc (review). The propulsive first movement of the Second Concerto dances along, for all the world like an airy alloy of Suppé and Bach. There is a lambent and easeful second movement which is followed by a finale that evinces a return to the confident melodious language of the first. It ends with a confident, classical downward gesture. Shor seems happy to temper his creativity so that it honours classical convention. The Third Concerto is in much the same pattern. The first movement is a cool and romantic affair – rather like Saint-Saëns but with a chilly edge. The romantic middle movement prepares the ground for an equally temperate and sedate Allegro – a happy mood achieved and sustained. This could almost be the Tchaikovsky of the small concert pieces for violin or cello and orchestra.

The remaining three concert pieces are also for cello and string orchestra. The very accomplished and dashing Humoresque basks in early romantic sunlight. As for the two pieces entitled Music for My Kids, they are in the first instance centred and placid – a true lullaby. The second piece is steady of pulse and well-rounded.

Among the roster of Shor’s executant artists there are some familiar names. Dmitry Yablonsky is also a conductor and has appeared on many Naxos CDs over the last several decades, usually in core Russian repertoire. Daniel Raiskin has crossed my path as a conductor in some really good CPO discs of the music of Danish composer, Louis Glass.

Summing up: this disc of Shor’s music for cello and string orchestra is pleasingly performed and recorded, though the strings have a deckle-edge rather than a lush accent. The collection seems thoroughly annotated by Julian Francalanza. The music is fluent and although you would be hard pressed to identify it as contemporary, it is kind to the ear, mind and heart.

Rob Barnett

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