Mischa Maisky Mendelssohn

A fitting tribute to Mischa Maisky, who celebrates his 60th birthday on 10 January 2008, and also the 25th anniversary of recording with Deutsche Grammophon - not to mention his 30-year partnership with Martha Argerich.

Mischa Maisky started studying the cello at the age of eight. An immensely talented student, he entered the Riga Conservatory. Discouraged by the rigid curriculum, however, he moved to Leningrad in 1965. He not only won the Soviet Union's national cello competition, but also had an acclaimed debut with the Leningrad Philharmonic. In 1966, Maisky won a prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Clearly, cellist Mischa Maisky has discovered a terrific marketing gimmick. With his recording of Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata coupled with transcriptions of 14 of that composer's songs; his recording of Brahms' cello sonatas coupled with seven transcriptions of that composer's songs; and his recording of almost nothing but transcriptions of songs by Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Duparc, and Poulenc, Maisky has found an effective way to distinguish his recordings from those of other cellists. Thankfully, Maisky's gimmick is more than a publicity stunt: each of the above recordings is distinguished by his full-bodied tone, spectacular technique, and sensitive musicianship.

Mischa Maisky - Maisky!
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 0,99 GB | 4xCD Box | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Deutsche Grammophon # 471 508-2 | Country/Year: Germany 2001
Genre: Classical | Style: Various, Cello

…In great demand as a chamber player, Maisky has performed with a number of extraordinary musicians, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gidon Kremer, Peter Serkin, and Martha Argerich. Acclaimed for his renditions of concertos by Haydn and Schumann, Maisky is the only cellist to have received a Deutsche Grammophon offer to record Bach's complete works for the cello…

If you've been following the career of cellist Mischa Maisky, you've no doubt already encountered his previous recordings of "songs without words," his discs featuring songs by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Mendelssohn arranged for cello and piano. This 2007 disc of works by Russian composer Sergey Rachmaninov called Elégie is a continuation of Maisky's 2005 disc Vocalise, which included works by several Russian composers, including Rachmaninov.