The Dvorak Album
This compilation of music by Dvorak played by Yo-Yo Ma is just beautiful. Ma seems to understand just when Dvorak wants to be super-Romantic and sappy and when he is in fact being merely his usual expressive self. The former comes into bloom with the Slavonic Dance, in which he's accompanied by Itzhak Perlman and "Songs My Mother Taught Me," with Patricia Zander at the piano. But when it comes to revealing Dvorak as one of the most insightful and truly passionate of composers, with a particular understanding of the cello, Ma's playing of the B minor Concerto (under Kurt Masur, with the New York Philharmonic), the latter description comes into play. Ma gets every nuance out of the cello, and the way in which Masur, for instance, leads the winds against the cello at the start of the 2nd movement is just gorgeous. "Klid" ("Silent Woods") is given a deeply affecting reading as well, under Seiji Ozawa. 2004 is the 100th anniversary of Dvorak's death; this CD is fine tribute.--Robert Levine