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Two years after his successful Deutsche Grammophon Debut Album “Home” Kian Soltani returns with a Dvořák Album featuring the famous cello concerto and five arrangements of some of the greatest pieces Antonin Dvořák composed. Dvořák‘s Cello Concerto op. 104 hasn’t been recorded for the yellow label since 2002 (Mischa Maisky with Mehta and Berliner Philharmoniker). Maestro Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin accompany Kian Soltani in the concerto, while for the other pieces (three of which have been arranged by Kian Soltani himself) he is joined by six cellists of the Staatskapelle Berlin.

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.

You can tell a great deal about performance quality from one crucial consideration: timing. In the context of Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata as played by Kian Soltani and Aaron Pilsan, it’s in the first movement. Listen to 2'58", an arpeggio piano chord at the close of the exposition, then the pause before the repeated opening – sheer perfection. No one on disc judges it better. The overriding impression is of a watertight musical partnership, one’s attention divided equally between cellist and pianist.