The Dvorák Album

( 2 )

Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - EJ Johnson
Of all the music written for the cello, it may be Dvorák's B Minor Concerto that players prize most. Full of stretched-out melodies and Romantic passion, it's a perfect fit with the instrument's richly expressive powers. No wonder Yo-Yo Ma has recorded it twice. Fittingly, Ma's Dvorák Album, a compilation disc released to honor the centenary of the composer's death in 1904, begins with the Concerto -- the cellist's second version, to be precise, recorded in 1995 with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. It's certainly the pick of the two. More nobly eloquent than his earlier account, it stands bow-to-bow with Rostropovich's celebrated recording with Von Karajan. The ...
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Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - EJ Johnson
Of all the music written for the cello, it may be Dvorák's B Minor Concerto that players prize most. Full of stretched-out melodies and Romantic passion, it's a perfect fit with the instrument's richly expressive powers. No wonder Yo-Yo Ma has recorded it twice. Fittingly, Ma's Dvorák Album, a compilation disc released to honor the centenary of the composer's death in 1904, begins with the Concerto -- the cellist's second version, to be precise, recorded in 1995 with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. It's certainly the pick of the two. More nobly eloquent than his earlier account, it stands bow-to-bow with Rostropovich's celebrated recording with Von Karajan. The album continues with a series of brief charmers: the raptly lyrical "Silent Woods" a piano piece that Dvorák modified for cello and orchestra; a tuneful "Slavonic" Dance and the lovely G-flat Humoresque cleverly arranged for cello, violin, and orchestra, with Itzakh Perlman, Seiji Ozawa, and the Boston Symphony joining Ma; and the melancholy "Songs My Mother Taught Me" with pianist Patricia Zander accompanying Ma in a Fritz Kreisler adaptation. Ma's elegant playing suits the composer's bittersweet melodies to a tee, making for a Dvorák celebration that delivers handsomely.
All Music Guide - James Manheim
With adventurous crossover projects coming one after another from Yo-Yo Ma, it's nice to be able to revisit some of the performances that brought him to the top of the heap among cellists and among classical musicians in general. This disc includes Dvorák performances by Ma from various 1990s discs, with his lovely 1995 reading of the "Cello Concerto in B minor," with Kurt Masur leading the New York Philharmonic, as the centerpiece. This is a restrained version that might not be the first choice of those who like their Dvorák tilted toward Tchaikovsky, but in the lyrical passages it truly soars. Ma's rendering of the concerto's "American" theme, the second subject of the first movement, is classic. Similarly attractive is the six-minute cello-and-orchestra movement entitled "Klid" Silent Woods, inexplicably seldom presented on disc with the "Cello Concerto" even though it's cut from the same melodic cloth. The disc is rounded out by transcriptions, by the Czech-Canadian composer Oskar Morawetz, of the "Slavonic Dance in E minor, Op. 72/2" and the "Humoresque in G flat major, Op. 101/7," along with "Songs My Mother Taught Me," from the "Gypsy Melodies," in a cello-and-piano arrangement by Fritz Kreisler -- a solid finale. "Klid" and the two short orchestral transcriptions come from a session of Boston Symphony Orchestra performances recorded in Prague in 1993. Neither these nor the New York Philharmonic concerto session are particularly well engineered; there is a disconcerting level of background hiss in both cases, and the sound on the concerto is a bit brittle. Still, these are state-of-the-art readings from the premier cellist of our time, and they make a fine place to start with Dvorák for newcomers.
Gramophone - Edward Greenfield
This [1995] version [of the Cello Concerto] is among the very finest yet, matched by few and outshining most, including Ma’s own ten-year-old version with Maazel and the Berlin Philharmonic.... Ma and Masur together encompass the work's astonishingly full expressive range, making it the more bitingly dramatic with high dynamic contrasts.

This [1995] version [of the Cello Concerto] is among the very finest yet, matched by few and outshining most, including Ma’s own ten-year-old version with Maazel and the Berlin Philharmonic.... Ma and Masur together encompass the work's astonishingly full expressive range, making it the more bitingly dramatic with high dynamic contrasts.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 9/7/2004
  • Label: Sony
  • UPC: 827969285824
  • Catalog Number: 92858
  • Sales rank: 25,596

Tracks

Disc 1
  1. 1–3 Cello Concerto in B minor, B. 191 (Op. 104) - New York Philharmonic & Antonin Dvorák (40:37)
    Composed byAntonin Dvorák
    Conducted byKurt Masur
    Performed byNew York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur
    1. 1 Allegro
    2. 2 Adagio, ma non troppo
    3. 3 Finale. Allegro moderato
  2. 4 Silent Woods (Klid), for cello & orchestra (arr. from From the Bohemian Forest, B. 133), B. 182 (Op. 68/5) - Boston Symphony Orchestra & Antonin Dvorák (6:26)
    Composed byAntonin Dvorák
    Conducted bySeiji Ozawa
    Performed byBoston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa
  3. 5 Slavonic Dance No. 10 for orchestra in E minor B. 147/2 (Op. 72/2) - Oskar Morawetz & Antonin Dvorák (5:05)
    Composed byAntonin Dvorák
    Conducted bySeiji Ozawa
    Performed byBoston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa
  4. 6 Humoresque No. 7 for piano in G flat major, B. 187/7 (Op. 101/7) - Fritz Kreisler & Antonin Dvorák (3:34)
    Composed byAntonin Dvorák
    Conducted bySeiji Ozawa
    Performed byBoston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa
  5. 7 Songs my mother taught me (Als die alte Mutter), song for voice & piano (Gypsy Melodies), B. 104/4 (Op. 55/4) - Oskar Morawetz & Antonin Dvorák (2:54)
    Composed byAntonin Dvorák
    Conducted bySeiji Ozawa
    Performed bySeiji Ozawa
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Album Credits

Performance Credits
Yo-Yo Ma Primary Artist
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 2 )
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    Posted May 16, 2009

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