Dvorak: Cello Concertos

�Isserlis is on spellbindingly eloquent form in an entrancingly poetic and urgently communicative reading that really does sound like it's being captured on the wing...Harding and the Mahler CO are with him every step of the way; theirs is a real, breathing collaboration...Don't miss this special release.� --Gramophone Magazine, October 2013

�this performance is remarkably fine and the interaction between soloist and orchestra generates one of the most exciting ensemble performances of recent years. Steven Isserlis is inside the piece from the start...this is a performance to treasure for its beauty and commitment.� --BBC Music Magazine, November 2013 *****

�his performance recalls the reckless abandon of the youthful Jacqueline du Pr� in the work�s most extrovert passages, albeit tempered with the wisdom of experience and musical maturity...abetted by magically fresh music-making from Harding�s MCO.� --Sunday Times, 29th September 2013

�The death of [Dvorak's] sister-in-law prompted the rewriting of the last movement of the later concerto, played, as is the whole, with a passion that is thrillingly balletic.� --The Independent, 29th September 2013 *****

�How wonderful to hear a familiar work sounding so fresh and potent. Steven Isserlis's Dvor�k anthology is revelatory, in so many ways. There's the sumptious orchestral playing from Daniel Harding's Mahler Chamber Orchestra...Isserlis is terrific � blending security with spontaneity, his quiet playing so eloquent.� --The Arts Desk, 9th November 2013

Dvor�k: Silent Woods

�This recording bathes the listener in a stream of irresistable song that lingers in the memory weeks later. It also proves how well the composer's lyricism translates across timbre and sonority: this 'Song to the Moon' is as searingly effective as any I've heard sung...the recorded sound is ideal.� --BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 ****

�[the Sonatina] works particularly well in its new baritone and tenor register...This attests to both the sensitive way in which Poltera has adapted the music to the cello medium and to the deft and affectionate manner in which he plays it. So natural does the Sonatina sound on the cello that you wonder why Dvorak himself never thought of doing it.� --Gramophone Magazine, January 2013

On this disc, Christian Polt�ra and Kathryn Stott chart the gradual development in Dvor�k�s composition for cello.

The disc includes chamber works that Dvor�k composed originally for cello and piano or arranged for the combination including Polonaise in A major, the Rondo in G minor and Silent Woods which was originally a piano duet.

Polt�ra also presents his own transcriptions of several violin pieces and songs, including the Violin Sonatina, and Lasst mich allein, alongside the ever-popular Songs My Mother Taught Me and Song to the Moon from Rusalka.

Christian Polt�ra and Kathryn Stott are regular chamber music partners and have previously recorded music by Honegger and Frank Martin.