Antonin Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 is a perennial audience favorite, and many cellists play and even record it with conductors with whom they may only have a passing acquaintance. The work is relatively forgiving of such treatment, with melodies, that once heard, reside in the mind forever and need only to be refreshed. However, there's room for more progressive treatments of the work, and this one is an example, with the young cellist Kian Soltani joining Daniel Barenboim and his well-drilled Staatskapelle Berlin. Soltani and Barenboim have worked together consistently; Soltani was the principal cellist in Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in the Middle East. Their cooperation here is close. At times, it may almost seem as though Barenboim is calling the shots, pushing the tempo at many places in the first movement and often setting the general tone, but this is just a contrast in styles, and he gets out of Soltani's way when he needs to. The slow movement is not drenched in sentiment as the Russian school would have it but is a subtle nocturne. The program is filled out by short transcriptions of non-cello Dvořák works, several of them by Soltani himself, and they're all vigorous and engaging. Listeners have other choices, both classic and recent, for the Cello Concerto in B minor, but this one is well worth hearing. Listeners may find that it clicks with their own particular perceptions of the work.
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