Vivaldi Cello Concertos
Now this is how a cello should be recorded and sound! Without the delicious recording of the solo instrument (appears to be a baroque cello, although the linear notes provide no guidance) the disc would have been just one more mortal recording of Vivaldi's cello concertos. Well, not quite. Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello) together with Akademie fur Alte Musik, Berlin do competent work on Vivaldi's six - out of 27 known - cello concertos. Very upright, dynamic, not polished into insignificance.
But just like many of Vivaldi's violin concertos, his cello concertos are experimentations within a then new genre. They are not independent compositions with a characteristically individual nature of the modern era. They were not meant to be. Because of their repetitive nature, to hear all six concertos in row can be become numbning. In order to maintain the listener's interest the record label has inserted in between the Vivaldi's concertos two Sinfonias by Antonio Caldara (1670-1736), and it helps: Caldara was a first-class craftsman. But also: since the album is so skilfully recorded, clearly and transparently, it becomes a joy to draw attention to many wonderful moments in each concerto - eg. combining adagio playing cello with allegro by the orchestra.
This is not a disc for every evening but it's a fine album to visit every now and then, and especially when you're in a Vivaldi mood. The disc brought me back a memory of a vegetarian restaurant in Switzerland with excellent sallads made of fresh ingredients. Many came to the restaurant, not just because of the sallads but because of Vivaldi, whose music was played from morning till evening. Just Vivaldi.
Mendelssohn: Complete Works for Cello and Piano
Of the two cello sonatas on this disc, the latter D-Major Sonata (op. 58) is more important, compositionally more varied and virtuosic, albeit admittedly slightly conservative. This may not be among the top-3 peformances of the piece but all in all Colin Carr (cello) and Thomas Sauer (piano) do fine job eg. in revealing secrets of Medelssohn's outer and inner movements. As a bonus, one gets Variations Concertantes (op.17), Romance sans paroles (op. 109), and a decent sound.