Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yehudi Menuhin
Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations
“...the interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations marked the highlight of the evening. This was mainly due to the Russian cellist, Leonid Gorokhov, who seized the various temperaments of the piece with a soft but powerful tone, and formed sensual, beautiful lines. He performed the nearly unplayable virtuoso passages with such dancing lightness. It was as though they were pretty little etudes for a warm-up. Fantastic...”
Berliner Zeitung
English Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yehudi Menuhin
Schumann Cello Concerto
“The discovery of the evening however remains the 27 year old cellist Leonid Gorokhov...his technical performance, his vibrating intonation and the velvet gloss of his bowing reminds one of the tone of the young Menuhin.”
Neue Ruhrzeitung
“Russian-born London-based cellist Leonid Gorokhov, the winner of several major competitions while still in his teens, has a sound that matches his personality – big, warm and generous.”
Jeremy Nicholas: Classic CD
Russian Cello Works
Leonid Gorokhov (cello) and Nikolia Demidenko (piano)
The cover photo of a pugnacious-looking Leonid Gorokhov is pretty scary; this is not a cellist you’d want to meet in a dark alley. But that same belligerence comes across thrillingly in his playing of three Russian masterworks for cello: the Shostakovich D minor sonata, Rachmaninov’s in G minor and Schnittke’s Suite in the Old Style. There’s gentle, lyrical poetry here, too, but, above all, that passion of which Russian musicians are singularly capable, especially in Russian music. Gorokhov’s effortless skills are perfectly complemented by Demidenko’s sensitive accompaniment. A disc to delight the connoisseur.
The Observer
Virtuoso Cello Transcriptions
Leonid Gorokhov (cello) and Bobby Chen (piano)
On one level, this is just a lollipop disc - undemanding, entertaining music, with emphasis on the personality and brilliance of the performer. Gorokhov can easily sustain such spot-lit scrutiny: the verve of his manner can be heard straight away in the Martinů Variations, and as the recital continues he shows plenty of technical wizardry, with a particularly fluent bowing arm and a rich yet pure sound, varied beautifully, form velvety softness in the Locatelli Adagio to the most forceful, gutsy tone in the ballet of the Schnittke.
But there’s a bit more to this selection than a miscellaneous collection of showpieces. Apart from the fascinating roster of great cellists who have made the arrangements, the programme is almost like a demonstration of the different things a transcriber can do. At one end of the scale is Fournier’s adaptation of the (very beautiful) Ginastera song - straightforward and tasteful. The same goes for Shafran’s version of Schnittke (originally for violin and piano). Somewhere in the middle comes Piatti’s updated Locatelli, a wonderful period piece with its extravagant ornamentation, virtuoso bowings and written-out cadenzas. And, stretching the meaning of transcription to breaking point, is the Frescobaldi/Cassadó, a string of heavily arranged Baroque clichés that fails to remind me of any Frescobaldi I’ve ever heard. By contrast, Schnittke’s aping of Baroque style has an extraordinary feeling of purity and innocence that is also disturbing and thought-provoking.
The disc is finely recorded, and Bobby Chen’s accompaniments are sensitive and pianistically impressive. I’d love to hear him and Gorokhov playing some more substantial items from the cello and piano repertory. Gramophone
Biel Bienne Symphonieorchester
Dvorak Cello Concerto
“...Technically immaculate, dramatically virtuosic, soulful in phrasing and burningly expressive in the more poetical sections of the piece. With this Dvorak and also with the Bach encore Gorokhov secures a place amongst the foremost cellists of his generation.”
Der Bund
The Painter Hans Jakob Marti
My name is Hans Jakob Marti and I live in Biel, Switzerland, where I have been running a medical practice for over 30 years. In 1986 I had the pleasure of meeting the Russian master cellist Leonid Gorokhov who had come to our town to give a concert - a side effect of his participating in the Geneve Concours.
Luckily this was not our last meeting: The deep impression Leonid’s play left on myself and my wife, led to us going to many more concerts, to the acquaintance developing into friendship, and over time to a growing urge on my part to express through painting my experience while listening to Leonid’s concerts.
This is how in 24 years of friendship, there grew a considerable, random and unplanned series of portraits, all showing Leonid in concert. Credit for this series of paintings goes to what I consider a character inadequacy of myself: A “shaping rage” coming over me with overwhelming force as soon as the first few sounds from Leonid’s cello are reaching my ears and draw me into a deep spell for the remainder of the concert.
Sound, rhythm, expression and movement shape in my head into pictures and when I get home after each concert I start to create paintings - some small, some bigger, some from memory and some from sketches drawn during the performances.
I’d like to emphasise that the pictures “happen” on the spur of the moment. They all attempt to revive the spontaneity and formidable authenticity of Leonid’s mature and masculine play, exciting the listener with its lightness and subtlety as much as with its expressivity and its weight.
I don’t knowingly try to steer my creativity and hope that so I am able to catch into my paintings a small part of Leonid’s vast musicality and its expression - a musician putting his art into practice, with joy, passion, commitment, motivation, love and confidence.
I am aware that it is impossible to paint music in a way that it would become “hearable”, nevertheless, I believe that it is possible to visualise the feelings and emotions the music evokes in the musician and in the audience.
Hans Jakob Marti