Given that the Romantic Pieces, Op. 75, are violin works, and that a major Dvorák cello work, the Cello Concerto No. 1 in A major, is omitted, "The Cello Works" seems an odd title for this German Dvorák release. That said, this is a generally satisfying collection of pieces that displays Dvorák's melodic gift, his facility with small pieces that never cloy, and the relationship of these to his larger works, which maintain their popularity because of the way they place lyric episodes into a larger context. The program is one ...
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Given that the Romantic Pieces, Op. 75, are violin works, and that a major Dvorák cello work, the Cello Concerto No. 1 in A major, is omitted, "The Cello Works" seems an odd title for this German Dvorák release. That said, this is a generally satisfying collection of pieces that displays Dvorák's melodic gift, his facility with small pieces that never cloy, and the relationship of these to his larger works, which maintain their popularity because of the way they place lyric episodes into a larger context. The program is one that might have been played by a cellist in Dvorák's own time, when a concert might freely incorporate both orchestral and chamber works, and it plunges the listener into Dvorák's world. The performance of the Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, is technically rather than emotionally stirring, with fine attention to the balances that occupied Dvorák during the concerto's composition and preparation, which included the earlier Rondo in G minor, Op. 94. The smaller pieces are full of...
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