Natalia Gutman came from a musical family. She was born in Kazan, Kazakhstan, at a time when the city was packed with the many Russian intelligentsia and artists who had been evacuated before the advance of Hitler's troops. Her family included a long line of musicians: Her grandfather, Anisim Berlin, was a violinist who had been taught by the great pedagogue Leopold Auer; her grandmother was also a violinist and studied not only with Auer but also with Joachim; and her stepfather, Roman Sapozhnikov, is a cellist and well-known in Russia for his studies in teaching repertoire for the instrument.

She overheard her stepfather's pupils take their lessons when she was a very small girl. When she received a small-size cello for her fifth birthday, she took to it right away. Her father initially taught her, but in a short time her progress was so rapid that she was accepted into the Gnessin Music School, one of the leading music institutions for youngsters in Russia. Her first teacher was Sergei Aslamazyan. After three years, she graduated to Galina Kosolupova, one of the Institute's finest teachers. After another year, Gutman went on to the Moscow Conservatory, but retained Kosolupova as her teacher for the entire five years, which she considers especially important in her development. After graduation, she had an additional four years of post-graduate work with the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. As she was finishing her schooling, she started making prestigious concert appearances and entered major competitions. She won the first prizes in Moscow's Tchaikovsky Competition and the Dvorák Competition in Prague.

For a considerable period of time, her concert appearances in the West were rare; she tended to stay home while her husband, the famous violinist Oleg Kagan, did more touring. In 1980, the two of them played the Brahms Double Concerto at the Edinburgh Festival with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Evgeny Svetlanov, which was her British debut.

Beginning with the end of the 1980s she stepped up her international appearances, and has regularly attended the Crystal Palace Cello festivals. In 1985 she was particularly praised for a London performance of Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante for cello and orchestra; Robert Henderson of the Daily Telegraph said that not even Rostropovich could have surpassed it.

Gutman has an interest in the modern repertoire, including the Lutoslawski concerto and music of Alfred Schnittke. She considers extensive, regular, and thorough practice sessions to be essentials and unfailingly repeats the standard scale exercises. She does this with concentration, learned of necessity when her three children were young. She and her husband frequently perform chamber music and were frequently joined by eminent pianist Sviatoslav Richter until his death. She finds chamber music to be the most rewarding aspect of her life as a cellist.

© Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide

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Among the world's most renowned cellists, Natalia Gutman was born in Kazan, Russia into a musical family, receiving her first cello lessons at age five from her grandfather, Anisim Berlin, a respected violinist and student of the great Leopold Auer. By that time the family had moved to Moscow, and the young Natalia soon entered the Moscow Conservatory, studying for thirteen years with Galina Kosolupova. Upon graduation, she worked privately with the legendary Mstislav Rostropovich. Another early influence was pianist Sviatoslav Richter, whom she first heard and admired as "a kind of musical God" at age 14, and later had the privilege of recording with - including several works included here at the Classical Archives. Richter himself would later return the esteem, calling Gutman "an incarnation of truthfulness in music."

Her career ascended as a result of several awards from major festivals, including a Gold Medal at the Vienna World Youth Festival (1959), Third Prize in the Tchaikovsky Competition (1964), First Prize in the International Dvoràk Festival (1966), and a Gold Medal at the ARD (German Radio) Competition in Munich (1967) - the latter in the chamber music category with pianist Alexei Nasedkin. Following these successes, Ms. Gutman began an illustrious concert and recording career, performing on all continents with such major orchestras as the Vienna, Berlin, Munich and St. Petersburg Philharmonics, the London Symphony, the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, and many others. Among the celebrated conductors she has worked with include Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Mazur, Riccardo Muti, Mstislav Rostrapovich, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Yuri Temirkanov. As a chamber musician, she has worked closely with such artists as Sviatoslav Richter, Alexei Lubimov, Issac Stern, Elliso Wirssaladze, Evgeny Kissin, and perhaps most importantly her late husband, the great violinist Oleg Kagan (d. 1990) - whose influence on the musical identity of Ms. Gutman must be considered paramount.

While Ms. Gutman has performed the entire breadth of the cello repertory from the Baroque forward (note her superb performance of the Bach Cello Suites No.1 and 3), her greatest focus has been on contemporary works. She has performed numerous premiers, including several works explicitly written for her by celebrated Russian composers Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, and Sofia Gubaidulina. We are fortunate to have performances of both works by Schnittke and that of Gubaidulina.

In recent years, and especially since the death of her husband, Ms. Gutman has focused much on assisting young chamber musicians. This includes the workshops entitled "Berlin Encounters" she co-founded with pianist Claudio Abbado. Further, she continues the international music festival held each July in the Bavarian Alps that was originally founded by her husband, and is now named in his honor. In all, we are delighted to present the works of this outstanding musician here at the Classical Archives.

Reviews

"[This was] chamber music in its most sublime form... playing which combines the highest art with the most intense expression. Natalia Gutman is surely the most self-contained cellist we have ever heard; she is a past mistress of that elusive art of holding back in sheer volume without losing expressive force or intensity."

Munich press following her triumph at the 1967 ARD Competition

"Not that you could find many cellists like Gutman, who joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 2. She may be the only person around who can tap so much of the work's power and pain, apart from the cellist it was written for - Mstislav Rostropovich. Gutman burrowed behind the notes and uncovered the intense conflicts that lie at the heart - and soul - of the composer. Sardonic slashes, introspective whisperings, bold gestures of confidence and the last, long note of uncertainty were all indelibly articulated."

Baltimore Sun

"[Natalia Gutman] possesses that brand of sensitivity and physicality that one is happy to find in these works [of Shostakovich], and is capable of delivering, by turns, graceful lyricism, frenzied tension, and rugged propulsion. Her take on the music is also sweepingly architectural. That approach may overlook some of the music's nuances, but it does bring out its broad narrative in an engaging manner."

DSCH Journal

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