Bloch: Schelomo - Dvořák: Cello Concerto & Silent Woods

Album review

Any number of recordings on the market of Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, make good choices: it's a beloved repertory work, and it is the lifetime chance for any cellist to shine. Nevertheless, there's a strong case for choosing this one by the respectably well-known, but not a household-name, French cellist Marc Coppey and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Kirill Karabits. First is the unusual pairing with Ernest Bloch's Schelomo, another prominent repertory work for the cello. As Coppey points out in his notes, both works were connected with the U.S.; Bloch's work was written before he moved to the country permanently, while Dvorak's concerto was written in the U.S. as the composer prepared to return home. Both are reflections on ethnicity, and they fit well together in unexpected ways. Dvorak's short tone poem Klid (Silent Woods) is a pleasant entr'acte. But the prime attraction is the Dvorak concerto itself: Coppey offers a full-blooded, passionate reading that may put the listener in mind of classic Czech performances by Janos Starker, for example. Sample the finale, where the maximum intensity is squeezed out of the rhapsodic ending. It's a virtuoso performance with fine coordination between orchestra and soloist. Highly recommended.

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