Friedrich Gulda’s Concerto for cello and string orchestra with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and Bill Edins

“[Gulda’s] Concerto for Cello and String Orchestra (which includes percussion and guitars) was written in 1980 for cellist Heinrich Schiff. It is a kind of mad-cap patchwork of pastiche, from rock and jazz through echoes of early music in the style of the Spaniard Rodrigo, to Souza-like marches mixed with the cancan. It’s crazy, but undeniably fun, with some whimsical lyrical beauty in a second slow movement that recalls the idiom of Stephen Foster. It doesn’t exactly challenge audiences, but it does challenge the soloist, especially in the extended, sometimes improvised, cadenza. The young Canadian cellist Denise Djokic made a very strong case for the piece, her virtuosos playing binding together the weird elements. I thought she was more idiomatically effective than Schiff’s own recording, especially in the first movement, where she rocked with the best.”

(Edmonton Journal, 8 February 2015)