Short-changed Strauss

Maisky leads Mehta and the Berlin Phil in his interpretation of cello works from Dvorák and Richard Strauss

Composer: Dvorák; R Strauss
Repertoire: Cello Concerto (Dvorák); Don Quixote (R Strauss)
Artists: Mischa Maisky (cello), Berlin Phil/Zubin Mehta
Rating: 3/5
Genre: Instrumental/Orchestral
Label: DG 474 780-2

Maisky’s firepower and musical range are remarkable, and the accompaniments are as classy and lustrous as anyone could expect. But artistically there are large question-marks. Maisky’s quiet playing can be magical. But his hectoring manner exasperates: and in Don Quixote, Strauss’s musical characterisation is short-changed by Maisky and Zimmermann, who sound like the same person, not the very different Quixote and Sancho Panza.