Mischa Maisky: essential recordings
Gramophone
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
A selection of the cellists finest albums
Mendelssohn Cello Sonatas. Songs Without Words
Mischa Maisky vc Sergio Tiempo pf
DG
'Mischa Maisky‚ whose playing always shows intense involvement‚ makes a passionate advocate for the Mendelssohn sonatas. With young Venezuelan-born Sergio Tiempo‚ a pianist able to combine virtuoso brilliance with a flair for pointing the expression of each phrase‚ Maisky gives notably urgent‚ dramatic readings of both works...'
Elgar Cello Concerto Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations
Mischa Maisky vc Philharmonia Orchestra / Giuseppe Sinopoli
DG
'Soloist and conductor both convey the pathos of the music, but without any glutinous self-pity. Nobility is the order of the day...'
Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninov Piano Trios
Vadim Repin vn Mischa Maisky vc Lang Lang pf
DG
'Repin (who displays more than a touch of the gypsy in his soul during this movement) is a perfect complement to Maisky’s soulful outpourings and collective virtuosity is certainly felt in the “finale and coda” where the triumvirate really goes into overdrive – nimble, articulate, uplifting...'
Bach Cello Suites
Mischa Maisky vc
DG
'Maisky tells us he's taken a romantic approach, and in his generous vibrato, grand climaxes and long-drawn crescendos (notably in the Sarabandes) you can see what he means. But there's a sense, too, in which these performances can be said to be just as truly Baroque in their awareness of the rhetorical quality in the music, resulting in a wider range of articulation and internal contrasts, and in many more marked interpretative details...'
'In Concert'
Mischa Maisky vc Martha Argerich pf
DG
'...this is an amazing recital, the ultimate demonstration of how two artists with individual ideas and the technical wherewithal to realise them in practice can tease, cajole, pull or push the line, toy with dynamics, experiment with rubato, in a word (all senses), really play...'
Brahms Cello Sonatas. Songs Without Words
Mischa Maisky vc Pavel Gililov pf
DG
'The very opening of the E minor Sonata gives the clue as to what is in store. Maisky’s tone is veiled and gentle, and his phrasing affectingly poetic – especially at 0'40'', where the winding melody line makes way for Pavel Gililov to take over the principal theme...'
Brahms Piano Quartet Op 25; Schumann Fantasiestücke
Gidon Kremer vn Yuri Bashmet va Mischa Maisky vc Martha Argerich pf
DG
'You’d expect this line-up of performers to give us something remarkable, and so they do; the powerfully projected emotions and great imaginative range of their Brahms could only come from players well used to being soloists. And it’s a very suitable approach for this exuberant, colourful quartet...'
You can enjoy all of these recordings in the Apple Music playlist below:
