Cello Concerto op. 66
Sergei Prokofiev
Sinfonia concertante op.125
Mischa Maisky cello
Russian National Orchestra
Mikhail Pletnev
DG 1996
Flac, cue, log and scans
The innately aristocratic feeling the Russian National Orchestra exhibit and the classical finesse that Pletnev commands ensures a wonderfully balanced reading. ... I have never heard the Prokofiev sonority better served and its characteristically sardonic bite and wit emerge more potently. Miaskovsky's beautiful and more lightly scored concerto ... happens to be one of my favourite concertos which I often play for pleasure. Now it is to this version that I shall be turning not only for the sake of Maisky's committed advocacy but for the unforced eloquence which Pletnev and his orchestra bring to this score. The DG recording gives Maisky an appropriate prominence without ever masking the orchestral detail. An outstanding coupling. (Grammophone review)