Rococo Variations Archive

SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto; SAINT-SAENS: Cello Concerto No. 1; TCHAIKOVSKY: Rococo Variations – Antonio Meneses, cello/ Royal Northern Sinfonia/ Claudio Cruz – Avie

by Audiophile Audition | Oct 14, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto in a minor, Op. 129; SAINT-SAENS: Cello Concerto No. 1 in a minor, Op. 33; TCHAIKOVSKY: Rococo Variations, Op. 33 – Antonio Meneses, cello/ Royal Northern Sinfonia/ Claudio Cruz – Avie AV2373, 60:29 (8/18/17) [Distr. by Harmonia mundi/PIAS] ****: Antonio Meneses pays homage, via three concerted works,  to his Tchaikovsky Competition roots from 1982. It seems that as artists approach their 60th birthday—see Krystian Zimerman’s thoughts regarding late Schubert on DGG—they turn to long-cherished repertory and contribute new insights. Antonio Meneses (b. 1957) took the musical world by storm in 1982, winning First Prize and the Gold Medal at the VII International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. With conductor Claudio Cruz (rec. 3-4 January 2017), Meneses visits three staples of the cello repertoire, by Schumann, Saint-Saens, and Tchaikovsky. The Schumann a minor Concerto (1850) typifies his late, economical style, recycling its opening thematic and motor materials, and employing his standard Intermezzo in lieu of a concerto’s slow movement.  Meneses and Cruz play the tender work for its intimacy and dark bursts of energy. The piece rarely ventures into virtuoso bravura, but it does call for an accompanied cadenza in the last movement that became a model for Edward […]