Daria

Mischa Maisky is an impassioned performer, a flamboyant stage presence and a genuine talent. This intimate and emotional performance of music for violoncello and piano is saturated with sensuality. French art songs provide Maisky with great fodder for his deeply personal interpretations. These compositions from the late 19th to early 20th centuries are rich with flowering lyricism. As a French impression of the traditionally German music form, they have a certain verve that launches a musician of Maisky's stature to another world.

When you've got a good thing going, as Russian-born Israeli cellist Mischa Maisky did with his first two solo cello albums, Meditation and Adagio, why not continue? So here is his third collection of lovely and well-loved classical themes, most of which are specially arranged for cello and piano, several by Maisky himself. Included are Debussy's Clair de lune and Saint-Saëns's Allegro appassionato.

SCHUBERT: SONGS WITHOUT WORDS is an elegant recital by pianist Daria Hovora and cellist Mischa Maisky that allows us to hear Schubert songs, beautifully rich as they are with the texts as sung by many of our finest singers, here solely for the instrumental line. Somehow the interplay between melody and accompaniment (always an equal partnership in Schubert's hands) is heightened by this experience. Not that the entire album is appropriated by the cello standing in for a vocalist: the opening work is "Sonata for Arpeggione and Klavier" and is one of the highlights of the CD. But just listen to the performances of 'Standchen', 'An die Musik' and 'Du bist die Ruhe' and hear the extraordinary marriage between the piano and cello, singing as beautifully as any other version. This is one of those CDs that bears keeping out for multiple listenings in the late evening.

Through her generous movements on the instrument and a feel for the piano that seemed like painting color on a canvas, Daria’s feelings were externalized in sounds, which made up the sublime, romantic music.