Warner Classics have
a winning formula with these cello-centric
highly melodic Tchaikovsky scores and
transcriptions.
The featured work is
the Rococo Variations. Tchaikovsky’s
affection for Baroque music, and his
adulation of Mozart, both find reflection
here. The Variations were written
expressly for Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, the
German virtuoso cellist who was the
composer’s friend and colleague at the
Moscow Conservatoire. As Tchaikovsky
didn’t play any stringed instrument
he entrusted the editing of the score
to Fitzenhagen who was given virtually
a free hand and did not simply confine
himself to editing the solo part.
We hear the version
in which the score was published, and
which is usually performed today, in
an order devised by Fitzenhagen, and
with one of Tchaikovsky’s own variations
omitted. There is an abundance of poise
and elegance about Kniazev’s impressive
interpretation. In addition his playing
displays a tremendously clean articulation
and his instrument projects a rich timbre.
It seems highly appropriate that Moscow-born
Kniazev and the orchestra made this
recording in the Moscow Conservatoire
where Kniazev trained and the location
with which Tchaikovsky’s writing of
the score is so inextricably connected.
For a first choice
in the Rococo Variations it is
hard to look outside the evergreen accounts
from Mstislav Rostropovich and the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert
von Karajan on Deutsche Grammophon 4474132
c/w the Dvořák
concerto. There’s also Lynn Harrell
and the Cleveland Orchestra under Lorin
Maazel on Decca Ovation 4250202 again
with the Dvořák and this time Bruch’s
Kol Nidrei.
The second and most
substantial score here is the Andante
cantabile in D minor from the second
movement of the first String Quartet,
Op. 11 from 1871. Many arrangements
of this highly popular movement soon
appeared, both authorised and unauthorised.
This is Tchaikovsky’s own version for
cello and orchestra made in the mid-1880s.
Tchaikovsky also made his own arrangement
for cello and small orchestra of the
yearning and achingly melodic Nocturne
in D minor, a work that began life in
1873 as the piano piece, Op. 19, No.
4. Kniazev gives genuinely moving interpretations
these two works, high on tenderness;
long on eloquence.
The disc also contains
ten short pieces for cello and orchestra
from a selection of Tchaikovsky’s hundred
or so songs, sensitively arranged by
Evgeni Stetsuk. Kniazev offers really
responsive performances of these miniatures,
certainly adding value to the cello
repertoire.
Alexander Kniazev and
the Moscow Chamber Orchestra under American-born
Constantine Orbelian prove sterling
advocates of these appealing Tchaikovsky
scores. Warm and well-balanced, the
Warner Classics sound merits congratulations
all round. Andrew Huth’s ample and excellent
booklet notes are similarly fine. In
short this is a really desirable disc.
Michael Cookson
Alexander Kniazev, cello 
