Matt Haimovitz - Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, Boccherini: Cello Concertos (1990)

This is young Matt Haimovitz's second disc for DG; see Fanfare 13:2, p. 257, for the first. He is technically impeccable and produces a pure, clean sound; his playing is especially fine in higher positions, where he achieves a firm, sweet tone. If some bottom notes sound blowsy—his initial entrance in the Haydn is a case in point—it may be due to a much-too-close highlight microphone: the superstar treatment, so soon? With that possible exception, the DG recording is ideal. The accompaniments are also excellent. In the Haydn concerto, the Moderato first movement and the Allegro molto finale are played very rapidly, with choppy attacks and slightly awkward transitions, but the overall spirit is bracing. Haimovitz and Andrew Davis seem to be trying to make this 1761-65 work into late Haydn; at least they keep him in the eighteenth century, which several recordings do not.

In the Haydn, Haimovitz plays first and second movement cadenzas by Maurice Gendron; in the Bach he plays his own, in the last two movements. The playing is graceful, and the concerto bubbles happily along, relieved by a fine, singing Largo. The Boccherini is the bastardized version by Grützmacher; how unfortunate that a new young artist should start with a corrupt edition. The first-movement cadenza is Grützmacher's, that of the third by Haimovitz after Pablo Casals: a concerto by a four-generation committee, based upon four Boccherini originals. Still, this disc overflows with virtues; every cello enthusiast should hear it.