Aural histories, the next gen

It might seem sheer folly for young artists to make new recordings of well-known concertos. They are competing with the great soloists of the past 100 years in a marketplace glutted with standard repertory. Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” to take but one example, has been recorded more than 200 times. Still, we count on each new crop of musicians to keep music alive.

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Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1, Cello Sonata

Han-Na Chang, cello. London Symphony Orchestra. Antonio Pappano, conductor and piano.

(EMI Classics)

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AN able technician, Chang has an ace collaborator in Pappano, who not only carefully controls the London Symphony in the concerto but plays accomplished piano in the sonata. Yet she doesn’t quite have a firm grip on this concerto; her tone turns fuzzy and harsh when the composer applies the pressure, and the cadenza and finale wander. Likewise, her playing in the sonata is raw-boned, short on nuance, at times too high-strung. Stick with Rostropovich’s 1959 world-premiere recording of the concerto (Sony), one that caught all of the work’s humor and angst.

-- Richard S. Ginell