Davidoff, Carl - Cello Concertos 1 & 2 - Wenn-Sinn Yang, Mikkelsen, Latvian NSO

 

Release Date: 03/27/2007 Label: CPO Number of discs: 1 Composer: Carl Davidoff Performer: Wenn-Sinn Yang cd info/ buy

Review:

All five of nineteenth century Russian-Latvian cellist and composer Carl Davidoff's cello concerti are important and valuable concert works for the cello, and you'd never know that to the extent they have been recorded. The Concerto No. 2 in A minor has fared the best at four recordings, whereas Concerto No. 1 in B minor enjoys its second recording in this fine CPO performance by Wen-Sinn Yang and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra under Terje Mikkelsen. This recording of the first two fits the bill and is a superb outing for cellist Wenn-Sinn Yang. CPO's Carl Davidoff: Cello Concertos 1& 2 is filled out with a familiar cello warhorse, Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33, which makes perfect sense; although Davidoff did not premiere it, he was the dedicatee of Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien. Tchaikovsky's Variations, and his concerto writing as a whole, bears a strong similarity to Davidoff's approach to concerti in terms of thematic development and the use of certain kinds of transitional devices. That is one reason the neglect of these works is so unfathomable; they hit the highpoints of high romantic style, are melodious and serious, and give the cellist plenty of virtuosic stuff to show off with. Yang certainly does the job; his playing is fleet, yet fluid, and his dedication to this music shows. This really should be your first choice for these two Davidoff concerti. This is an excellent disc that should be sought out with urgency by devotees of the cello.

 

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Joseph Joachim Raff - Cello Concertos - Muller-Schott, Kulek, Stadlmair

 

Release Date: 08/02/2005 Label: Tudor Records Number of discs: 1 Composer: Joseph Joachim Raff Performer: Daniel Müller-Schott cd info/ buy

Review:

The star of this recording is undoubtedly Daniel Müller-Schott, whose intelligence in interpretation and technical assurance in delivery is breathtaking. These are very mature performances for one still at the start of his international career. These fine works are indeed lucky to have found such an accomplished advocate. That said, Hans Stadlmair, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and, of course, Robert Kulek all give of their impressive best. If there is one unsung composer who deserves to be heard, it is Joachim Raff. Self-taught, prolific, a gifted orchestrator with a knack for beautiful tunes, Raff was highly respected in his day but was ultimately swept away in the current that divided the Romantic era between Brahms and Wagner. Raff was his own man and ignored being pigeonholed. There are those who say Raff was too much a salon composer, lacking the sturm und drang that is often equated with greatness, and that he should have edited a little more and composed a little less. And there may be truth in these criticisms. But at his best, as he often was, Raff has earned a rightful place in the repertory.

 

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Mendelssohn - Complete Music for Cello - R.Lester, S. Tomes

Release Date: 11/14/2000 Label: Helios Number of discs: 1 Composer: Felix Mendelssohn Performer: Richard Lester, Susan Tomes cd info/ buy

Review:

This disc would have been welcome enough even without the tenderly nostalgic little unpublished Assai tranguillo (written by the 26-year-old Mendelssohn for his good young friend, Julius Rietz) recorded here for the very first time. Lasting only just over two minutes it ends inconclusively on the dominant, as if intended to preface something bigger. But brief as it is, I thought it no less of a gem than the Lied ohne Worte of 1845 described by Susan Tomes in her refreshing introductory note as "one of the most perfect and memorable" of its kind. I'm sure many collectors will also be as delighted as I was to renew acquaintance (after far too long) with the unjustly neglected Variations concertantes, specially composed in 1838 for the composer's younger brother, Paul, a keen amateur cellist although a banker-to-be. Both the "homely" (to quote Tomes again) D major theme and increasingly demonstrative figuration of the variations (not forgetting the penultimate presto edagitato in the minor) are so cunningly crafted as well as so quintessentially Mendelssohnian in spirit as to make it hard to believe he was still only 20 at the time. It is certainly these three works that allow the cellist and pianist to show their acutest telepathy as a duo. The two sonatas in their turn find them again very much on the composer's own imaginative wavelength. But hailing the Second as the more passionate of the two, Tomes draws attention to the torrents of keyboard arpeggios in the exultant outer movements that "almost overwhelm the singing lines of the cello". And except in the more lightly scored central movements in both, I did feel that balance did not favour the shyer Richard Lester. While sensitively mellowtoned and lyrical, his line at times seems to need stronger projection to match this very positive pianist's own musical conviction. Or could this be just a matter of their positioning in St Mary's Church, Hatfield Broad Oak? J.O.C.

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