On 25 March 2018, in Pune, India, Kenzhebek Kumysbekov’s Poem sounded once more as a duet for cello and piano. Artie’s Festival — the Poona Music Society’s chamber programme — took place in Mazda Hall. Gautier Herrmann and Emmanuel Christien performed Poem; the recording lasts 4 minutes 12 seconds.
The work’s story began with the same forces in 1960. The musicologist Aliya Alpeisova dates Poem to that year and names cello and piano as its original voices. Three Soviet records, versions for other instruments and almost six decades lie between that beginning and the recording in India.
How did a chamber work travel this path while preserving the basis of a duet? The solo voice passed to violin, qobyz — the Kazakh bowed instrument — oboe and double bass. Piano remained beside it.
The structure of the original version
Alpeisova examines Poem as a three-part work for cello and piano. The lyrical opening moves into a more animated middle, a climax and a solo cadenza, then returns in the reprise and coda. In her analysis, the cello carries a songlike melody, while the piano not only provides harmonic support but also takes part in the development — the original version is already constructed as a conversation between two instruments.
Five dated voices
The performance path of Poem can be seen at five points:
- 1960 — cello and piano. Alpeisova dates the creation of Poem to this year and identifies its original forces.
- 1979 — qobyz and piano. Meruert Kalenbaeva and Galina Kononenko recorded the piece for the album Qobyz Sazy — Melodies of the Qobyz.
- 1983 — cello and piano. Dzhambul Baspayev and Valery Pestov open side one of a record with Poem.
- 1983 — oboe and piano. Tanatar Nuraliyev and Roza Sharipova performed Nuraliyev’s arrangement.
- 2018 — cello and piano. The Artie’s Festival recording in Pune names Gautier Herrmann and Emmanuel Christien.
Alongside this sequence stand the versions for violin and qobyz named by Alpeisova, and the double-bass repertoire described by Dana Zhumabekova. The solo timbre changed, but piano remained the duet’s second participant.
The cello returns in Pune
In January 2018 Herrmann took part in the Kazakhstan–France project Paris — Astana: From Debussy to Zhubanova. The programme joined music by Debussy, Massenet, Sarasate, Fauré and Rachmaninoff with works by Gaziza Zhubanova and Kumysbekov. Kazakhstanskaya Pravda reported the cellist’s impression of Poem and his intention to add it to his repertoire.
On 25 March Poem appeared in the Artie’s Festival programme in Pune, India. Herrmann, the clarinettist Olivier Patey and the pianist Emmanuel Christien performed in Mazda Hall. Poem for cello and piano was named beside Schumann and Brahms.
The Poona Music Society’s audio catalogue gives the work a separate recording. It names Herrmann and Christien, the date 25 March 2018 and a running time of 4 minutes 12 seconds.
Fifty-eight years separate Alpeisova’s date from the recording in Pune. In that time, Poem appeared on three Soviet records, acquired versions for several solo instruments and was performed in India. After every change, two voices stood together once more — cello and piano.