Sinfonia Concertante in E minor (with works by Crumb & Tcherepnin)

"This live recording almost belies its origin as hardly a squeak can be heard from the audience, making the ambient properties of the SACD all that more convincing and lovely. In fact, this recording's audio attributes have to rank with the very best out there, and Channel Classics should be very proud. Pieter Wispelwey is one of the greatest cellists currently sawing away, and his command of this music is evident. The Prokofiev, a rather awkward piece structurally (and still the debate goes on as to what to call it-many insisting that "Symphony-concerto" is the proper title, and I'll not argue it) but with an assertive soloist all difficulties are easily overcome-and a sympathetic conductor helps as well, one who knows how to knit the various sections together. Sinaisky is such a conductor, and with this we have one of the finest of the almost 30 recordings currently offered."
(Five Stars AudAud.com)

In the midst of war and state-sponsored terror, one thing in Prokofiev's life retained its priceless value: friendship. It was for his good friend, Mstislav Rostropovich, that he composed the Sonata for cello and piano, op. 119, and the Sinfonia Concertante, op. 125.

(…) 'The attraction for cellists lies in the phenomenal technical challenge, the lyrical intensity and the many different roles the soloist, as the main character in this epic, has to play. A great fighting spirit is asked for. If things go well and the dragon is down at the end, the satisfaction is enormous. Besides, who wouldn't want to be Slava for forty minutes? The presence and inspiration of the big man is all over the piece. (…)

(… ) For this live recording, to have the support of Vassily Sinaisky and this orchestra, that has a decade of Gergiev behind it, was a tremendous privilege. They were exciting days. The choice for the two solo encores, Tcherepnin and Crumb was made to give two examples on a totally different scale from the same early postwar years in which the Concertante was written. The Tcherepnin particularly, is almost on a miniaturist scale.' (…)

Pieter Wispelwey (from liner notes)