Vytautas Sondeckis - Romantic Music for Cello [Laureate Series: Cello]

Channel Classics gives us under-appreciated stellar talents in violinist Rachel Podger and cellist Peter Wispelwey, and Naxos offers parallels in violinist Michiko Kamiya and cellist Vytautas Sondeckis in it's Laureate series. Sondeckis serves up a 60-minute box of assortment from eastern Europe here, with expressive vibrato and the solid technical skills one might expect from the son of a distinguished cellist and student of David Geringas, himself a renowned cellist who ably conducts the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra in this recording. Much of the music is familiar: Tchaikovsky's Melody, Nocturne, and Andante Cantabile, Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee and Serenade, and Rachmaninoff's Vocalise. Other pieces are less well-known, works by Davidov, Dvarionas and Taneyev, and a lush Shostakovich adagio arranged for cello and string orchestra by Atovmyan.

1) The Flight of the Bumble-Bee
2) By the Lake (Prie Ezerelio)
3) Melodie Op.42 No.3
4) Nocturne Op.19 No.4
5) Melodie
6) Ballade Op.25
7) At the Fountain Op.20 No.2
8) Intro and Rondino
9) Canzona in F
10) Ballet Ste No.2: Adagio
11) Vocalise Op.34 No.14
12) Ser Op.37
13) STR QT No.1 in D Op.11: Andante Cantabile Op. Posth