Cellist Wendy Warner.

Haydn and Mysliveček:

  • Three Cello Concertos

 

On this CD, Cellist Wendy Warner is the soloist in the cello concertos of Joseph Haydn and Josef Myslivecek. And she competes with some pretty tough recorded competition from interpretations of the same music by Mstislav Rostropovich Jacqueline du Pre.

Ms. Warner, a frequent collaborator with Camerata Chicago, first earned worldwide attention by winning first prize at the Fourth International Rostropovich Competition in Paris in 1990.

Here are the specific works we get to hear:

Haydn:

  • Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major, Hob. VIIb:1
  • Cello Concerto No. 2 in D major, Hob. VIIb:2 (Op. 101)

Myslivecek:

  • Cello Concerto in C major

Performed by Wendy Warner (cello), with the Camerata Chicago.

Cellist Wendy Warner and Maestro Hall give us a fine Haydn interpretation throughout the First Concerto. Warner’s playing sounds spirited and lyrical, and while this early concerto may not have the more-serious content of the later D major Concerto, it presents some passages that require virtuosic playing, which Ms. Warner performs with ease, especially the long, singing Adagio.

The interpretation of the Second Cello Concerto is always brilliant and expressive with Ms. Warner’s passion and precision.

MusicWeb International, wrote on the 25th September 2013:

“There’s an elegance and sheer class which makes it good, and then there’s Wendy Warner to make it really good. Her solo playing is always pretty, melodies given to her cello always unfold with stately charm, and the support from the orchestra is perfectly good.”

Here is am impressive video of Wendy Warner, cello, and Marta Aznavoorian, piano, playing Brahms at the Music Institute of Chicago:

 

And next, here is Wendy Warner performs from the Bach Suite #1, ‘Sarabande’:

 

Finally, here are Wendy Warner, Cello, and Irina Nuzova, Piano, performing the 5th movement of Manuel de Falla’s ‘Suite Popular Espanola’ (Asturiana):

 

What a lovely, controlled, dark sound!

 

Tags: Wendy Warner, Cello, Haydn, Brahms, Manuel de Falla