Victor Herbert: Cello Concertos Nos 1 & 2 / Irish

Victor Herbert was a "serious' musician and performer before he gained fame with his popular musicals.These cell concertos are very enjoyable and could be collector's items.

The most memorable piece here is the least consequential -- the 15-minute filler, "Irish Rhapsody," which is a bit of a musical cliche, but given a snappy performance here. The Cello concertos are much more substantial, though, but it's hard not to remember that Dvorak's great one (supposedly inspired by Herbert's No. 2) is just in a different league expressively. That said, though, these are attractive, well-wrought works, and I would pay money to hear them in a program played as well as they are here by Mark Kitzower, an artist whom I hadn't heard before. The Naxos sound balances orchestra and soloist well -- a tricky matter with the cello -- and the Ulster Orchestra sounds very good. JoAnn Falletta, whose recording of Bartok's "Kossuth" was enterprising and very nicely executed, is excellent again here -- lively and expressive in the appropriate places. Once agin, she brings to life worthy if less familiar music. Recommended.

Victor Herbert is one of those individuals who doesn't fit quite neatly in our classical music consciousness. Was he an American composer of operettas and light classical music? (Yes.) Was he a European composer of serious works? (Yes.) Was he a performing artist? (Yes, a cello soloist.) Was he a teacher? (Yes again.)So an interesting amalgam ... and this recording gives us three aspects of Herbert's persona: the composer of serious works as well as light classics, with the former featuring Herbert's own instrument.The Cello Concerto #1 was premiered in Germany in 1884, with the composer as soloist. It's a conventional work in its structure and form -- similar to many other concertante works being composed by other Central European composers of the time (Draeseke, Gernsheim, von Reznicek, etc.). And yet, despite the inevitable similarities to other essays in the genre, the First Concerto has some very charming and memorable moments -- particularly in the singing middle movement and the exciting final movement in the style of a polonaise. Even the first movement, which has perhaps a little too much in the way of predictable orchestra-as-adjunct-to-the-soloist writing, retains our interest because Herbert is such a master of melody.Engaging though the first concerto is, the Concerto #2 is quite another matter, taking us more than a few notches higher. I consider this work to be Herbert's crowning glory in terms of the "serious" works he created. Completed a decade after the First Concerto and premiered in New York City with the composer again performing as soloist, it has a much more "symphonic" character, with more connectivity and integrity between the three movements. Famously, the piece is said to have been the inspiration behind the creation of Dvorak's own mature Cello Concerto, which that composer had been hesitant to write since a failed effort at composing a cello concertante work decades earlier.The Cello Concerto #2 is a piece I've known for nearly 40 years, and it's one that never grows old. It has a pensive, brooding quality about it in the outer movements, which bookend a sublime yet heartrending slow movement in which the cello's plaintive solo voice is hauntingly beautiful.While the Concerto #1 has had very few recordings -- the only one I've heard before this is the London/Decca recording by Lynn Harrell and Sir Neville Marriner -- the Second has had a half-dozen recordings easily -- most of them quite fine. Harrell, Yo-Yo Ma/Mazur (Sony), Gautier Capucon/Paavo Jarvi (Erato) and Julian Lloyd-Webber/MacKerras (EMI) all have their strong points, and let's not forget the classic late 1950s Mercury recording with Georges Miquelle and Howard Hanson: it was the first one in stereo and it did much to give the Concerto exposure in the modern era.In this newest recording, Mark Kosower, who is principal cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra, is every much as effective as his esteemed fellow recording soloists. His tone is silvery smooth ... light and playful in the final movement of the First Concerto ... passionate and rhapsodic in the Second. He takes a rather deliberate tempo in the opening section of the Second, but soon hurtles into the main theme with the kind of "impetuousness" suggested by the movement's "Allegro Impetuoso" title. The "sweet sorrow" of the middle movement of #2 was so poignant, it brought tears to my eyes. Hearing Kosower's sublime account reconfirmed my view that the middle movement is the emotional high-point of this concerto.The Ulster Orchestra and its erstwhile music director JoAnn Falletta are the perfect partners in these concerti, turning in wonderfully idiomatic interpretations. They seem right at home with this music, intonation is flawless, and balances with soloist Kosower are ideal. Even though Falletta no longer has an official capacity with Ulster, on the strength of her recordings with the orchestra -- Gustav Holst, E.J. Moeran, John Knowles Paine and now Victor Herbert -- it certainly makes one hope that she will continue doing so, because it's a recording partnership made in heaven.... And as if the two cello concerti aren't enough, the NAXOS recording concludes with the "Irish Rhapsody." It's light classical music "par excellence" -- a pastiche that plumbs no great depths but is simply delightful from first note to last. It's one of those guilty pleasures that even the most serious-minded, hardcore classical music-lover couldn't help but enjoy. The Falletta/Ulster interpretation has atmospherics to burn.In sum, this is yet another highly interesting recording from NAXOS featuring repertoire that deserves to be better known. Congratulations to all the performers as well as the production team for a fine finished product.

One should listen to the Irish Rhapsody first. JoAnn Falletta is the first conductor to play this work as Herbert certainly intended it to be played. I have heard many of the really old recordings of the Rhapsody, and none of them do this piece justice. This performance is extremely powerful, a totally different piece in beauty and expressiveness from any previous weak attempts to record it. And the quality of the recording itself is superb. Stunning! While I have several different recordings of the second Cello Concerto, I had never heard the first Cello Concerto! What a pleasant surprise! Excellent, skillful interpretation by all concerned make this whole CD one of the best buys you could ever procure. Please get this! This is the serious side of Herbert and he is done very well by Mark Kosower (cellist), the Uster Orchestra and all under the magnificent conducting by JoAnn Falletta!

Arrived safely.

Victor Herbert (1859 – 1924), américain né en Irlande, fut un violoncelliste, chef, compositeur, il fut aussi l’un des fondateurs de la SACEM américaine. Il avait acquis une solide formation musicale en Europe (violoncelliste chez J. Strauss). Il est encore joué de nos jours, surtout dans les pays anglo-saxons. Inconnu en France.Ces deux concertos pour violoncelle doivent être intéressants à jouer, ils sont plutôt plaisants à écouter, mais, en tout cas pour le premier, c’est le genre de musique qui m’entre par une oreille et ressort aussitôt par l’autre. Aucun thème franc, aucune mélodie accrocheuse (voir Haydn, Dvorak, Saint-Saëns, Schumann, pour rester dans cet instrument). Il n’a pas retenu grand-chose de son passage chez Strauss. Une illustration musicale des toiles néo-raphaëlites anglaises, tantôt sucrées, tantôt fantasmagoriques. Le second concerto me parait nettement plus intéressant, on est proche de Brahms.Ils sont complétés par une charmante Rhapsodie irlandaise, enfin mélodique (mais elle n’est pas de lui), superbement orchestrée. C’est donc plutôt une bonne idée qu’ont eu les interprètes de nous proposer ces œuvres rares.La troisième étoile est donc pour la Rhapsodie et la quatrième pour le second concerto.Commentaire en anglais seulement. Enregistrement de 2015.

I was not familiar with these Concertos and really like them. Recording is excellent and the price is right.

現代と言ってもいいような方なのですが、馥郁たるロマンの香りの協奏曲。チェロ奏者は取り上げるべきだと思います。

recommended, great orchestra!