The Secrets of Dvorak's Cello Concerto

Jan Vogler (Performer), Angelika Kirchschlager (Artist), New York Philharmonic (Artist), David Robertson (Artist), Helmut Deutsch (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Jan Vogler
• Audio CD (November 15, 2005)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony Classical
• ASIN: B000BF0DUG
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,087 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid Dvorak Cello Concerto Plus More From Vogler, Kirschlager, Robertson and NYPO....., January 2, 2007

By 

John Kwok (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secrets of Dvorak's Cello Concerto (Audio CD)

This splendid Sony recording of the Dvorak Cello Concerto was highly praised when it was released back in 2005, so I am surprised to be the first customer to write a review of it at Amazon.com. Young German cellist Jan Vogler offers an impassioned, brilliant performance of the concerto, accompanied by guest conductor David Robertson - now music director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra - and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, in a recording which compares favorably to the best of Rostropovich's. This is a brilliant, emotionally sizzling performance from both the soloist and orchestra which was recorded well by Sony's engineers at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall; I was captivated instantly by both the splendid sound and elegant playing as soon as I heard the opening notes of the concerto's first movement. And I might add too that I have rarely heard the New York Philharmonic sound better lately - either live or recorded - under Robertson's direction.

Seeking to trace the artistic origins of Dvorak's cello concerto, Vogler and Sony have opted for a most novel approach, combining some of Dvorak's shorter chamber music pieces and songs with those composed by American popular composer Stephen C. Foster - whom Dvorak acknowledged as an important source of inspiration for his works composed while residing here in the United States back in the early 1890s. Accompanying Vogler is Austrian lieder accompanist Helmut Deutsch, whose own brilliant playing on the piano compliments both Vogler's playing and mezzosoprano Angelika Kirschlager's singing (Distinguished Austrian mezzosporano Schlager's elegant phrasing can be heard on her delightful renditions of Foster's "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair" and "Wilt Thou Be Gone, Love?" and the vocal sections of Dvorak's "Zigeunerlieder".).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An American Classic, August 9, 2008

By 

charles phelps "viola" (Baltimore, Md United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Secrets of Dvorak's Cello Concerto (Audio CD)

This is once said that Dvorak wrote this piece when he was homesick for his native country, that he put all American musical influences and wrote a strictly Czech Concerto. Jan Vogler puts this myth to rest and shows that even though that there is Czech music here there is a highly an American influece of "good ol' American music". as he demonstrate from the songs "Jeanie with a Light Brown Hair" and "I should be gone". Which

he echos in the last movement of the cello concero.

This performance may not be the best performance but it's not bad. The Conductor and the soloist were on the same page and they worked well together. I' ll put this up there with he Talich, Rostropovich, Dvorák: Piano & Cello Concertos Pablo CasalsDvorak: Cello Concerto and Du Pre Dvorak: Cello Concerto; Haydn: Cello Concerto in C; Jacqueline du Pre.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Concept OK, Performance Unexceptional, May 6, 2011

By 

RJAdams - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Secrets of Dvorak's Cello Concerto (Audio CD)

This recording pairs competent but unspectacular performances of the B minor cello concerto and one of the composer's love songs quoted in the concerto with speculation about Dvorak's relationship with his wife's sister, whom he courted first and who died while he was in the U.S. The annotator of the notes wonders if the Cello Concerto owes its inspiration to the sister-in-law. Rostropovich cannot be beat in the concerto but get him with Ancerl or Giulini (the BPO von Karajan recording is not bad but suffers from the conductor's preference for polish over passion).