Haydn: Cello Concertos; Minuets (2010)

Cellist Ivan Monighetti, Russian despite the Italian name, was a student of Mstislav Rostropovich. He recorded both mainstream repertory and contemporary music, and his playing has inspired both praise and heated condemnation. It's hard to understand what the fuss is about when hearing these crisp, sensitive recordings of Haydn's two concertos (on a Ruggieri cello from 1693), in which Monighetti is accompanied by an orchestra of Polish conservatory graduates and students. The program is nicely organized, with the concertos ... Read More

Cellist Ivan Monighetti, Russian despite the Italian name, was a student of Mstislav Rostropovich. He recorded both mainstream repertory and contemporary music, and his playing has inspired both praise and heated condemnation. It's hard to understand what the fuss is about when hearing these crisp, sensitive recordings of Haydn's two concertos (on a Ruggieri cello from 1693), in which Monighetti is accompanied by an orchestra of Polish conservatory graduates and students. The program is nicely organized, with the concertos each flanked by orchestral minuets that are clever in themselves. More than 15 years of eventful stylistic development separated the Cello Concerto in C major, Hob. 7b/1, written in the early 1760s, from the Cello Concerto in D major, Hob. 7b/2, of 1783, and Monighetti almost sounds like two different cellists in his performances of these works. The earlier concerto is classic youthful Haydn, with a large majority of the first movement's thematic material introduced in the first... Read Less