Aram Khachaturian was an established Soviet artist when he realized an old
dream of his in the first postwar year 1946 and composed a grand,
quasi-symphonic work for his main instrument. Following his spectacular
concertos for piano and for violin, which in the meantime had taken the
world by storm, he now surprised his public with music that only gradually
reveals its fiery temperament: we hear very clearly how well the composer
knew the violoncello, the instrument on which during his study years he had
practiced until his fingers hurt, in all its special qualities and how
precisely he knew how to bring out its expressive and velvety autumnal
personality. Neither this concerto nor the Rhapsody composed by
Khachaturian seventeen years later for Mstislav Rostropovich can be
mastered with mere virtuoso ostentation. Both works demand the services of
a soloist who does not misunderstand the unprecedented difficulties of his
parts as an opportunity for self-display, and Daniel Raiskin has found such
an interpreter in the person of the Swedish cellist Thorleif Thedéen:
sovereign in every technical respect, he surmounts the enormous challenges
even when he removes himself from the intensive dialogues with the
orchestra and – left entirely to his own devices – captures the whole of
Khachaturian in the monologues.