PASC060:
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B Minor, Op. 104 - Dvorak
MP3
price
Antonio
Janigro, cello
Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera
Conducted by Dean Dixon
Released
in 1954 as Westminster 52-25
Download ID: 250765
(Duration
40'30")
Play
sample movement:
Dvorak's
Cello Concerto is without doubt one of the greatest of them all,
with perhaps only Elgar's challenging for supremacy, and in the view of
some critics is the composer's finest work, "the crowning achievement
of Dvorak's copious and warm-hearted genius" according to 1955's
The Record Guide.
Written
in the United States through the winter of 1884-5, and then finalised
with a revision of the final sixty bars some months later when the composer
had returned to Bohemia, there are conflicting stories about the genesis
of the Concerto, though both firmly point to American cellists as the
source of Dvorak's stimulus. It is likely that the work was originally
intended to have an America première, but this came to nothing
when the cellist Hanus Wihan, which whom Dvorak had make a successful
tour in1891-2, was refused permission to modify the solo part with his
own cadenzas.
Thus the
première took place in London on 19th March, 1896, with the composer
conducting the Philharmonic and Leo Stern as soloist, and it would be
a further nine months before the US première took place in Boston.
Until now,
this site has represented the recordings of Milan-born cellist Antonio
Janigro (1918-89) with his chamber music partnership with Fournier
and Badura-Skoda, and with the Brahms Double Concerto, again with Jean
Fournier. Here at last we get a chance to hear the great man with the
spotlight on him alone - and what a magnificent perfomance this is, brought
back to life once again by the magical studio wizardry of Peter Harrison.
