Octo_Russ

Dvorak - Cello Concerto [Maisky/Mehta-Berliner Philharmoniker] 

A regular disc in my Blog [19th April 2011 & 7th May 2010], and this disc is becoming quite a treasure to me, the Strauss work is not one i immediately warm to, so while it's attached to a work that i love, it means that it gets played in my life, and i'm starting to find my way around there, the Dvorak is chock a block full of good tunes, and Maisky is very individual, playing this work hundreds of times live, and the Berliner Philharmoniker is lush, there's a great ambiance in the recording too, a work which i love to hear again and again.

Mischa Maisky is Latvian, born in 1948, he's 64 now, he recorded this live performance in 2002, the front [and back] cover [by Susesch Bayat] is excellent, showing Maisky and Mehta outside the Berlin Philharmonie, i like the way it's a cream background, with the dark clothing, it creates a perfect place for the lettering, the Composers are in bold white, the works in bold grey, and the performers in smaller lettering, i like the way it's all laid out.

The Adagio second movement is akin to Dvorak's slow movement in his Ninth Symphony, sounds like they're cut from the same cloth, the woodwinds [especially the clarinet] start with a wistful yet soothing refrain [0:00-0:32], what a lovely introduction, and after the initial notes of the cello, these same forces come back even more wistful [0:55+], and the cello joins in with a dialogue, there's a perfect feel to the whole thing, there's an enormous great thunder of a forte [2:38-2:51], nicely shocks you out of your seat, and Dvorak's writing when things cool down is superb [2:52+], a tremendous flow to the cello line, and busy muted violins, there's lovely use of oboe throughout, certainly Dvorak knows how to add just the right texture of a woodwind to create melancholy, about halfway through the horns play a low serenade [5:36-6:31], something that Bruckner would have been proud of, it lasts nearly a minute, and leads into a sort of cello cadenza, but there's the odd flute bird twitter, then it gets really nostalgic, the woodwinds are almost in tears of sadness [7:57-8:21], it's a beautiful moment, toward the end there's a sort of coda, reminds me of the way Bruckner closes down the Adagio of the Eighth, lots of delicacy and regret, one of Dvorak's greatest creations.

Here's Jian Wang playing the slow second movement on YouTube, Gustavo Dudamel conducting.