Album: Gautier Capuçon, Valery Gergiev, Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme; Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante (Virgin Classics)

The pairing of Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme with Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante is not uncommon but I'm not convinced it plays to Gautier Capuçon's strengths.

Recorded live with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the Mozart-inspired Tchaikovsky piece is dispatched with a light touch, Capuçon's bow dancing over the strings but retaining a sureness of tone. But there's a stiff gear-change between its stately, sentimental manner and the darker mood of Prokofiev's late revision of his own Cello Concerto in E minor.

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