Search - Dutilleux, Lutoslawski, Rostropovich :: Rostropovich Plays

Five star but a little skimpy

07/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It makes me cranky to see straight-on reissues of LPs on single CDs at premium prices. If Baudo didn't have anything in the drawer to fill this out, someone surely did...so this comes at top dollar.I'll excuse it here because this is the best thing "Slavka" has ever done and no one seems to know about it, maybe not even him. Here he took up two extraordinary compositions of this century and did it altruistically, or relatively so. We actually hear him making music with an original voice and not straining to be "original." A few critics recognized this 25 years ago when these came out, but mostly the artist got silence for his efforts, which is a shame. He should have been doing more of this type of thing.The sound here is lovely, the contribution by Baudo peerless (Baudo, the nephew of the great Tortelier, knows cello and what has to be done to get an orchestra and the soloist in balance...half the battle). Rosty gets a move on in both works, has a great feeling for their surprising similarities and their virtuoso opportunities. He takes direction from Baudo very well...the tendency toward playing to the gallery we often heard from him is nowhere in evidence. These aren't pieces FOR the gallery.To me it's the kaleidoscopic premise of both pieces that proves most fascinating and the soloist's consciousness of rythmic values is what makes all the difference. I wish I could go into more detail but I've never been able to locate scores to check out compositional points. The Dutilleux seems to have the soloist's music written on three staffs for a time.So, seek this one out and enjoy it--I just got this to replace my deteriorating vinyl...it's that good."