Benedict Kloeckner: Dvořák

The Strad Issue: February 2025

Description: A deep dive into the music of a Czech master proves seductive

Musicians: Benedict Kloeckner (cello) Danae Dörken (piano) Romanian Chamber Orchestra/Cristian Măcelaru

Works: Dvořák: Cello Concerto; Silent Woods; Rondo; Slavonic Dance op.46 no.8; Songs my mother taught me; Polonaise op. posth.; Leave me alone

Catalogue number: BERLIN CLASSICS 0303412BC

This well-filled CD conveniently includes Antonín Dvořák’s complete music for cello (except for the unorchestrated early A major concerto), with two unobtrusively adapted songs thrown in for good measure. Leave me alone is, of course, referenced in the Cello Concerto and had a poignant biographical significance for the composer. It brings to a moving close a well-planned recital that effectively showcases Benedict Kloeckner’s addictively sensuous sound (he plays the 1680 ‘ex-Maurice Gendron’ cello by Francesco Rugeri).

The Cello Concerto itself receives a lyrical reading that sees Kloeckner as a primus inter pares in close rapport with the principal players of the Romanian Chamber Orchestra, sensitively led by Cristian Măcelaru. The cello’s numerous dialogues with the principal flute, the cooing pair of clarinets and the orchestra’s leader are beautifully judged, as chamber music writ large.

Although Dvořák prepared orchestral versions of Silent Woods and the G minor Rondo, Kloeckner performs them with his long-time piano partner, Danae Dörken. They offer intimate readings, breathing and phrasing as one, giving emphatic characteristation to the various episodes in the Rondo and the Polonaise, and swooning delightfully in that wistful old chestnut, Songs my mother taught me. The piano-accompanied pieces are studio-recorded, while the concerto is a one-off live take from a concert held in front of a commendably silent audience, the South West Radio engineers achieving a beautifully balanced sound in both venues.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE