Search - Ludovit Kanta :: Haydn: Cello Concertos Nos. 1 And 2 / Boccherini: Cello Concerto In B Flat Major

Gutsy ... and controversial!

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 08/30/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is controversial and you will either love it or hate it, or you may, like me, have rather mixed feelings, but I promise you it will not leave you cold! The reason for this is not to be found in the compositions presented (Haydn's two surviving cello concertos and the best-known of Boccherini's total of nine) but in the "small print" at the bottom of the inlay: "Cadenzas by Peter Breiner". Breiner is not only a conductor and arranger, but also a jazz musician, and here he manages to combine Haydn's music with some "gutsy" cello playing (by Ludovit Kanta) of the variety that you would expect to hear in a jazz club rather than a classical concert hall. In fact, both Haydn cello concertos are given a strong rhythmic accent which is anything but authentic, only the Boccherini is left more or less "untouched", although I suspect that here, too, Breiner was not concerned to establish any kind of authentic manuscript! The result is a disc that can entertain, amuse and sometimes set your foot tapping as well as tickling your ears with that mellow cello sound (which is excellently captured and put right in the forefront by the engineers - the orchestra is rather pale in comparison); what it doesn't do, of course, is give you 18th century music!



So if you are into historically authentic performances, just quietly forget this disc and move on (Naxos has since produced a much more serious recording of the Haydn concertos with the German cellist Maria Kliegel; the Boccherini concerto is available in an excellent version by Russian Ivan Monighetti on Berlin Classics). But if you want some fun and can listen to this with a twinkle in your eye, it is well worth the slight investment that you need to make. (The CD was digitally recorded in 1987/88 and is generously filled with 69 mins. total playing time.)"

Excellent, even if a bit strange...

Richard A. Cavalla | NJ, USA | 04/29/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Conductor Peter Breiner wrote the cadenzas for these performances, and they are not at all what you would expect. They draw on blues and jazz harmonies that wouldn't be heard until 100+ years after the composition of these concertos! I found them quite off-putting at first, but have warmed to them after subsequent hearings. Haydn was always the musical jokester, and loved to surprise his audiences; if he were alive today, he might get a kick out of this recording.
Cadenzas aside, these are very good performances. They are warm, never stiff, and the musicians sound like they are having a great time. The Haydn C concerto is particularly inspired. Only 4 stars though - partly because the soloist's tone gets a bit squeaky on a few occasions, but mostly because Boccherini simply is not a composer on the same level as Haydn. I would have preferred another Haydn work - perhaps a violin concerto or a piano concerto.
Nevertheless, this is clearly worth checking out."

The tradition's new growth

David A. Baer | Indianapolis, IN USA | 03/20/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Austrian Joseph Haydn (1731-1798) and the Italian Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) eased central and southern Europe through its transition from the Baroque to the Classical periods with considerable aplomb. Fortunately, both of these neatly overlapping composers leveraged the potential of the cello in order to do so.



Ludovit Kanta (cellist), the Capella Istropolitana, Peter Breiner (conductor), and a Naxos executive team that must have had its Wheaties here give us an enormously enjoyable version of Haydn's concertos no. 1 and 2 and Boccherini's Cello Concerto in B Flat. More controversially, they provided to their contracted artists--alternatively, the latter may have simply *taken* it--license to let the tradition grow under foot.



The result is a series of decidedly non-period cello cadenzas, the stuff of controversy between purists and their musical opposites. I find them delightful, but hasten to add that they take several large steps from what might be called a 'constitutionalist' view of art music. Haydn and Boccherini doubltess never heard such sounds and would have considered them alien to their own if they had.



But one or both of them might have smiled and, perhaps, loosed the Austro-Hungarian-Italian version of the word 'awesome'.



Or perhaps not.



The beauty is, you don't have to decide.



Naxos has instead made it easy to enjoy a superb and innovative performance of two past masters of the cello and its accompaniment for a song.



What's not to like?"