Jian Wang - The Baroque Album (2003)

This is the second Deutsche Grammophon CD on which Jian Wang is the featured soloist; the first was an album of Haydn's Cello Concertos (463180-2). (He's also recorded the Brahms Double Concerto with Gil Shaham and Claudio Abbado – DG 469529-2.) The cellist was born in China in 1968, and studied at the Shanghai Conservatory. Thanks to the impression he made on the visiting Isaac Stern, he later came to the Yale School of Music to study with Aldo Parisot. DG gives the CD the omnibus title "The Baroque Album." Fair enough, but this is Baroque music as it was understood in the middle of the previous century, not as it is understood today. Three of the four works are played not quite as the composer originally imagined them. The Couperin (François, not Louis) is a 1924-vintage arrangement, scored for cello and string quartet, of five pieces from the composer's Concerts royaux. Frescobaldi's Toccata was written for the keyboard; cellist Gaspar Cassadó arranged it for cello and piano circa 1925, and then cellist Doron Toister arranged Cassadó's arrangement for cello and strings. Most people know Georg Matthias Monn's concerto in the realization by Arnold Schoenberg (of all people). The novelty here is that Jian Wang has discarded Schoenberg in favor of a more recent realization by Olivér Nagy. Only the Boccherini is performed in a completely unadulterated edition, and this is ironic, because the concerto is much more famous in a very corrupt edition by one Friedrich Grützmacher, so many listeners will not be entirely familiar with the concerto as it is performed here.

Tracklist:

01. Luigi Boccherini - Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra No. 9 in B flat major, G 482 - I. Allegro moderato
02. Luigi Boccherini - Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra No. 9 in B flat major, G 482 - II. Andante grazioso
03. Luigi Boccherini - Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra No. 9 in B flat major, G 482 - III. Rondo (Allegro)
04. Francois Couperin - Pieces en Concert for Violoncello and String Quartet - I. Prelude. Gravement
05. Francois Couperin - Pieces en Concert for Violoncello and String Quartet - II. Sicilienne. Tendrement
06. Francois Couperin - Pieces en Concert for Violoncello and String Quartet - III. La Tromba. Gaiement
07. Francois Couperin - Pieces en Concert for Violoncello and String Quartet - IV. Plainte. Douloureusement
08. Francois Couperin - Pieces en Concert for Violoncello and String Quartet - V. Air de diable. Vivement
09. Girolamo Frescobaldi - Toccata for Violoncello and String - Grave - Allegro giusto
10. Georg Matthias Monn - Concerto for Violoncello, Strings, and Harpsichord in G minor - I. Allegro
11. Georg Matthias Monn - Concerto for Violoncello, Strings, and Harpsichord in G minor - II. Adagio
12. Georg Matthias Monn - Concerto for Violoncello, Strings, and Harpsichord in G minor - III. Allegro non tanto