Dvořák: Cello Concertos Nos. 1&2

Here, coming in a newly designed cover, is Supraphon's successful analogue recording of two cello concertos by Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904). Notwithstanding cello's ranking as the solo stringed instrument with the most limited repertoire, Czech music is lucky in having produced, in Dvořák's B minor Concerto, the truly pivotal, essential, most widely popular as well as likely the most artistically pregnant work in this particular format. A "symphonic" type of concert, it does not strive to dazzle the audience by soulless display of the solo instrument's brilliance, but rather to bring into play sophisticated symphonic music featuring a purposefully and tastefully conceived solo part.For its part, Dvořák's first, youthful cello concerto is not admired so much for ripeness of form and flawless balance between technique and expression, as for its heartfelt impassioned message sent out by a budding major talent. Only a piano reduction of the concert has survived, which was orchestrated with great feeling for this occasion by Jarmil Burghauser, a leading Dvořákian scholar and compiler of the authoritative catalogue of his works. The solo parts were played here by Miloš Sádlo, backed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Václav Neumann.