Wait a minute. Dvorák Cello Concertos 1 & 2? Isn’t there only one? Well, yes and no. It turns out that 30 years before the famous B minor concerto, Dvorák composed one in A major with piano accompaniment, but the score was taken out of the country by its dedicatee, Ludvik Peer, before Dvorák could begin the orchestration and the composer never saw it again. (This was a particularly tough year for Dvorák, as he sent his newly completed Symphony No. 1 to a competition in Germany and never saw that score again either.) The work was subsequently realized and orchestrated and appears here in the version by Jarmil Burghauser. The concerto is cut from the same cloth as the contemporaneous First symphony, meaning it displays a remarkable fecundity of musical ideas as well as a tendency to ramble (the finale takes its good sweet time before getting to the first subject). However, as with any piece by Dvorák, there’s no want of good tunes, and as a whole the work is a fine example of the composer’s early mastery of the concertante form–especially in this fine performance by Miloš Sádlo, who incorporates his own revisions to the solo part.
But it’s in the B minor concerto where Sádlo really displays his considerable talents. His solid, evenly produced tone, precise-but-never-inflexible rhythms, pointed phrasing, and genuine feeling (especially in the slow movement) make for a highly charged and refreshingly upbeat reading. Sádlo also provides plenty of dramatic tension when called for, as in his arresting first-movement initial entry. Václav Neumann’s interpretation is typical of his crisply articulated Dvorák style and the Czech Philharmonic plays with its trademark clarity and brilliance. The 1976 recordings give equal prominence to soloist and orchestra but suffer from limited dynamics.
