Dvorak: Cello Concerto, Dumky Trio

Dvorak: Cello Concerto, Dumky Trio

Dvorak: Cello Concerto, Dumky Trio
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CD Details

Composer: Dvorak
Conductor: Jiri Belohlavek
Orchestra: Prague Philharmonia
Performer: Queyras
Performer: Faust
Performer: Melnikov
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2009-06-09
Music Label: Harmonia Mundi
Soundtracks:
  1. Cello Concerto in B minor, B. 191 (Op. 104): 1. Allegro
  2. Cello Concerto in B minor, B. 191 (Op. 104): 2. Adagio ma non troppo
  3. Cello Concerto in B minor, B. 191 (Op. 104): 3. Allegro moderato
  4. Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor ('Dumky'), B. 166 (Op. 90): Dumka 1. Lento maestoso. Allegro quasi doppio movimento
  5. Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor ('Dumky'), B. 166 (Op. 90): Dumka 2. Poco Adagio - Vivace non troppo
  6. Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor ('Dumky'), B. 166 (Op. 90): Dumka 3. Andante - Vivace non troppo
  7. Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor ('Dumky'), B. 166 (Op. 90): Dumka 4. Andante moderato. Allegretto scherzando
  8. Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor ('Dumky'), B. 166 (Op. 90): Dumka 5. Allegro
  9. Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor ('Dumky'), B. 166 (Op. 90): Dumka 6. Lento maestoso - Vivace

Music reviews of Dvorak: Cello Concerto, Dumky Trio

Music Review: How Do You Say "Magnificent" in Czech?
Rating: 5 Stars

If there's any logic in the Universe, the word should be "Queyras"! This is a magnificent performance by the young cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, one of the new wave of cellists who are equally facile on baroque or modern instruments. I've already reviewed Queyras's baroque-styled performance of the six Bach Suites for solo cello; it's magnificent! Now I have to exclaim in wonder at his interpretation of the workhorse Cello Concerto by Antonin Dvorak, a composition I've always enjoyed in almost any performance. I have several versions on CD, so I decided to listen to Queyras's head-to-head with the far better-selling recording by Yo-Yo Ma with the New York Philharmonic. It was quite a revelation; to my ears, Queyras wins every round, but I was also surprised that the Prague Philharmonic outplayed the New Yorkers dramatically in the first and third movements. The concerto begins orchestrally; several minutes pass before the cello enters, and those minutes reveal a great deal. The Prague Orchestra is splendidly transparent (here's my neologism: 'transhearable) in allowing each instrumental timbre to be heard, even during massed orchestral declamations. The tuning is better, the recording acoustic is sharper, I knew before the cello uttered a note that the contest was over.

Possibly it's Queyras's profound understanding of the baroque cello and of the aesthetic of "historically informed performance" than makes his cello so lovingly voice-like. Think of a voice like that of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, a voice that can project beauty on every note of its range and warmth at ever level of dynamics. That's Queyras's cello. Besides, his bowing is far more precise than Ma's, and it makes his quick passages both elegant and eloquent, while Ma's sound only vigorous. This is unquestionably the best performance of the Dvorak I've ever heard.

Some reviewers elsewhere have objected to the recording technology of this CD. They accurately point out that the cello is close-miked, while the orchestra is miked for a more general ambience. Thus, they say, the sound you hear is unlike any sound you would hear in a live performance. And so it is, but all for the better! What you hear is what the cellist himself hears while playing: his own voice in his own space, in dialogue with the orchestra BEHIND him. The concerto form is always potentially such an agon, soloist against symphony. A cello concerto risks much, in that the cello doesn't easily hold its own against 20 violins and a ragtag of other instruments. The forces used by the Prague Orchestra in this recording are not so small - 14 violins, for instance, and three horns - but conductor Jiri Behohlavek reins them in and makes the ensemble sound as tight as a chamber orchestra.

Then, happy day, the CD is rounded out with the finest music Dvorak ever wrote, the "Dumky" Trio #4 for piano, violin, and cello, rather than the oft-paired Cello Concerto by Victor Herbert - Ma's match-up - which I'd be willing never to hear again. Pianist Alexander Melnikov and violinist Isabelle Faust clearly share the same aesthetic as Queyras; they seem to listen "through' each other with generous ensemble. Altogether this is a 'magnificent' CD. Note that there seem to be several 'editions' or releases of it, at different prices, including in in SACD.
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