Variations on a Rococo Theme, for cello & orchestra (or cello & piano) in A major, Op. 33
Nocturne, for cello & small orchestra (or piano) in D minor, Op. 19/4
String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11: Andante Cantabile
Pezzo capriccioso, for cello & orchestra (or cello & piano) in B minor, Op. 62
"Das eine weint, das andere lacht," reads the title of the original German-language notes for this release by cellist Johannes Moser. "The one weeps, the other laughs." The English translation renders the phrase differently, but it's a good summation of the contents here: both of the major works on this album of cello-and-orchestra music are retrospective in different ways, but with each carrying a small seed of the other. Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, opens with a famous, choked, opera-like cello solo ...
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"Das eine weint, das andere lacht," reads the title of the original German-language notes for this release by cellist Johannes Moser. "The one weeps, the other laughs." The English translation renders the phrase differently, but it's a good summation of the contents here: both of the major works on this album of cello-and-orchestra music are retrospective in different ways, but with each carrying a small seed of the other. Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, opens with a famous, choked, opera-like cello solo that seems to survey the wreckage of World War I. The work demands a certain passionate intensity (not the Yeats type!) that Moser supplies, paired with iron technical control. This he supplies in spades. For a long time the concerto was thought to be at the limits of playability, but Moser impresses with the fluency of everything he plays. This is true too in the Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33, of Tchaikovsky, a joyous piece of virtuoso Mozartiana that again really takes wing...
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