Mainardi/van Kempen -- Dvořák Cello Concerto, III. Allegro moderato

Antonin Dvořák
Cello Concerto in B minor, op. 104
III. Allegro moderato

Enrico Mainardi
Paul van Kempen
Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra
'41 recording

NOTES
In the 19th century, when Piatti was one of the foremost cellists, the decline of the Italian school of string playing could be disguised. But by his death, symbolically at the beginning of the 20th century the generally sorry state of Italian instrumental playing, so long neglected in favor of opera, could no longer be denied and it was not until after WWII that Italian string players once again measured up to the highest standards. Of course there were honorable exceptions, and the rinascimento took place only through the efforts of a number of devoted teachers, several of them excellent soloists. Enrico Mainardi stands here as one of the two representatives -- with Luigi Silva -- of a generation of cellists which included Crepax, Bonucci. Mainardi was born in Milan on 1897 and was given his first cello when he was three, starting lessons a year later. He studied at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, where his composition teacher was Giacomo Orefice, and at eight played a Beethoven sonata in public. At a concert in Bologna, Respighi partnered him at the piano, and he later had further composition lessons in Venice with G F Malipiero, so he was part of the Italian musical establishment from the start. When he was thirteen he made his Promenade Concert debut in London with S-S's first concerto with H. Wood. In '12 and 13 he studied with H Becker in Berlin making his debut in that city in '13 and later that he played Reger's A Minor sonata at the Bach and Reger festival at Heidelberg, with the composer at piano. His solo areer was interrupted by the war and when he took up the cello again in '19 he found himself unable to play at all. He entered the Academia de Santa Cecilia in Rome to study composition with Pizzetti and piano but after 2 years returned to berlin for further cello lessons with Becker and from' 29 to '31 was an orchestral principal, first in the Berlin Staatskapelle, with whom he recorded Don Quixote under Strauss in '33 and then in Dresden. After that he built up a career as one of the most successful soloists in Germany and Italy, particularly once the players of Jewish origin, like Feuermann Piatigorsky Graduan and Schuster had been removed from the scene. He also played sonatas with Dohanyi, Backhaus and Zecchi, and trios with Kulenkampff and Fischer; after WWII this trio continued with W. Schneiderhan, Kulenkampff having died in '48. Pizzetti and Malipiero wroth concertos for Mainardi, Malipiero contributing a triple concerto; and his own compositions included four concertos, sonatas and a number of smaller pieces for his instrument, as well as songs, chamber and orchestral music. He published two editions of the Bach solo suites. Mainardi also followed Busch and Fischer in directing concertos in which he was the soloist. He taught at the Saint Cecelia Academy from '33 and the Berlin Hochschule from'41 and his later years he gave summer courses in Salzburg and Lucerne -- Sigfried Palm and Joan Dickson were among his pupils. He died in Munich on April 1976. A loquacious, even flamboyant figure offstage, Mainardi was rather sober, not to say dull as a performer and his recordings suggest that he was overrated in his lifetime. He made a number of solo records in the '50s, including the Haydn D Major and Schumann and a set of the Bach Suites. They do not do hum justice, being overlaid with a spurious romanticism which too often seems to be a cover for less than dazzling echnical command. He is best heard in the radio recording of Brahms B Minor trio with Fischer and Schneiderhan from '53 or one of his earlier commercial efforts. The Don Quixote, a good intermratation if light years begind those of Feuermann, Fournier, Rostropovich or Tortelier, is already on CD. In the finale of Dvorak's concerto he plays musically but wih a somewhat thin, old fashioned tone, and occasionally broadens the tempo infinitesimally when a technical hurdle looms. The virtuosity of the Dresten Staatskapelle under Kempen is a joy in itself.

Sorry for typos. The above notes are from liner notes from this Pearl release.

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