It's 40 years old, but I just had my first exposure to it live, at the
SF Symphony, Rostropovich conducting, Isserlis the soloist - getting
kissed by Slava (for whom it was written) not once, not twice, but thrice
at the conclusion, the performance well deserving of all that public
demonstration of emotion.

The work left me in a tizzy. It is among the most "different" pieces
of music I know, and I'm not really certain if it's a great work or
a miscalculation. Should take several more hearings to figure it out.
Challenging, puzzling, exciting - if only more of that were offered at
concerts! Recommend catching it during the current series of subscription
concerts, it demands a live performance so that you can concentrate...
and watch Isserlis and Slava.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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