Cellist Sam Magill plays the piece with sure-fingered technique, a great deal of conviction, and with a special expressiveness in the slow movement.

Excellent performances and sound all around, plus world-premiere recording, make for a strong recommendation for this, another winning addition to Naxos's "American Classics" series.

--Jerry Dubins

The (Vernon Duke) Cello Concerto was commissioned and premiered (in 1947) by Koussevitzky and Piatigorsky, and the great Russian cellist played it several times in Europe. Especially in this very-well-recorded and flat-out magnificent performance by cello soloist Sam Magill and the Russian Philharmonic led by Dmitri Yablonsky, Duke's Concerto seizes and rewards the listener's attention, approaching the stature of comparable works in the genre by Kabalevsky, Shostakovich and Barber.

by Lehman

Korngold wrote the Cello Concerto in 1946 for the Hollywood potboiler "Deception". In the film, the concerto is only six minutes, most of which are spent in the rapid fugato section and a "Flight of the Bumblebee"-style cadenza for Heinried. For concert use, however, he expanded the work to double its celluloid size. Samuel Magill, who put together and headlined this program, played this alternately exciting and lovely piece about as well as anyone can.

Mr. Magill has a brilliant tone and remarkable dexterity, handling this showy work without pandering.