Northern Flowers presents two of the cello repertoire’s most beloved masterworks receive authoritative, deeply felt performances from one of Russia’s most distinguished cellists in this new studio recording from Moscow’s “Palace on the Yauza.”
The album leads with Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, written to represent the atmosphere and styles of what Tchaikovsky believed to be the less complicated age of the 18th century. The work pays homage to Mozartian classical styles throughout the series of charming variations. Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor was composed during his last year in New York City during his famous American trip, though, he wrote in the manuscript, “I finished the Concerto in New York, but when I returned home to Bohemia I changed the end completely as it stands here now.” And the melodies certainly reflect the Bohemian countryside he loved so much. Together they make an ideal programme, contrasting Dvořák’s sweeping Bohemian passion with the refined wit and tenderness of Tchaikovsky’s tribute to the rococo era.
At the centre of it all is Marina Tarasova, a winner of International Competitions in Prague, Florence and Paris and a laureate of Moscow’s Tchaikovsky International Competition. Partnering her is the Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra under its principal conductor Sergey Kondrashev, a graduate of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory who trained under the legendary Mark Ermler and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
