{"product_id":"885470044743","title":"Michal Balas - Prokofiev - Import CD Digipak","description":"\u003cp\u003eCredits:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMichal Balas\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDescription:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Symphony-Concerto of extraordinary detail, with a third-movement double variation set that has to be heard to be believed\n\n【Overview】\n- Prokofiev's fearsomely virtuosic Symphony-Concerto paired with excerpts from the ballet Cinderella, in performances of genuinely international character.\n- Both works are products of the Soviet era and have a long tradition of being played in a rather four-square manner. Here, supple phrasing and an ability to switch at will between steel and warmth allow every corner of the music to be savoured.\n\n【The Works】\n- The Symphony-Concerto was completed in 1952, a thoroughgoing reworking of the Cello Concerto Op. 58 undertaken with Rostropovich's help. The orchestral writing carries unusual weight, yet the cello is never short of opportunities to shine. There is much to enjoy, not least the double-stopped cadenza in the second movement, while the third movement, cast as a set of double variations, is an astonishing piece of music.\n- Cinderella, completed in 1944, is a large-scale romantic ballet. Seven numbers selected from the three concert suites distil its essence into some twenty minutes.\n\n【The Performers】\n- Michal Balas, the cellist in the Symphony-Concerto, is a Polish player who studied for many years with Danjulo Ishizaka at the Music Academy Basel.\n- The conductor Chuhei Iwasaki is a Japanese musician based in the Czech Republic with a particular affinity for ballet scores.\n- The Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra is the municipal orchestra of the city that gave the world Pilsner beer.\n\n【Recording】\n- Recorded on 12 June 2025 in the orchestra's home, the Mestanska beseda in Pilsen, a handsome neo-Renaissance building whose 700-seat hall is noted for its generous acoustic. An outstanding recording of great presence and immediacy.\n\n【From the Booklet】\n- Rostropovich described the Symphony-Concerto as \"a monster with which the soloist must do battle.\"\n- Michal Balas puts it this way:\n\"The Symphony-Concerto is full of everything a cellist would rather not see. Impossibly difficult passages, insanely complex harmony, changes of tempo - and all of it to be played against a huge orchestra. And it goes on for forty minutes.\"\n\n【Product Details】\n- Digipak packaging, with a 16-page booklet in German and English including notes by the German musicologist Kerstin Unseld. Made in the EU; discs manufactured by Optimal Media, Germany.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Berlin Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53595636203809,"sku":"885470044743","price":3090.0,"currency_code":"JPY","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0568\/8482\/2076\/files\/885470044743.jpg?v=1790482045","url":"https:\/\/cdsvinyljapan.com\/products\/885470044743","provider":"CDs Vinyl Japan Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}