The Beethoven Triple Concerto is a strange work, with the most important–-or at least prominent–-solos given to the cello; it is the instrument which introduces each movement. The remarkable Martha Argerich wisely allows Mischa Maisky to shine in his solos and leading position, but her contribution is anything but back seat. Her customary virtuosity is everywhere in evidence, and, in a way, she turns the piano into the spinal column of the work, with the violin and cello playing around her. Every time Maisky is about to lapse into a mannerism which might detract–-too much sliding, a dynamic slightly exaggerated–-Argerich brings him back, and both of them play with handsome tone. Capucon's violin is recorded a bit stridently (this was taped live in Lugano), but his playing is equally stunning. Alexandre Rabinovitch-Barakovsky leads the orchestra matter-of-factly until the final movement, when he catches the proper fire. In the Schumann A minor concerto Argerich is wonderful the solo passages and a fine partner in orchestrated ones and she really makes much of both the lyrical runs and the dance-like passages in the last movement. Recommended.

This 5 CD set brings together Martha Argerich’s complete studio, live and radio recordings on Deutsche Grammophon, and documents her special, intuitive and passionate relationship with Chopin’s music.

In 1823 Johann Georg Stauffer invented the arpeggione, a freak instrument, a hybrid of 'cello and guitar, with strings tuned in fourths. Schubert invested such attractive melodies in this queer contraption, he must have believed in its future. The melodies that float throughout the "Sonata for Arpeggione", are indeed attractive to say the least. The first point that strikes one in this performance is the clarity that cellist Mischa Maisky maintains.

This disc is the reason that recordings exist: to preserve great performances of great music in transparent sound. This April 2003 recording made in Flagey Hall in Brussels of performances by cellist Mischa Maisky and pianist Martha Argerich is certainly among the best performances ever made of this repertoire. Indeed, only the Rostropovich and Shostakovich performances can compare with them and, even there, it is arguable that Maisky and Argerich's are equally convincing.

When you've got a good thing going, as Russian-born Israeli cellist Mischa Maisky did with his first two solo cello albums, Meditation and Adagio, why not continue? So here is his third collection of lovely and well-loved classical themes, most of which are specially arranged for cello and piano, several by Maisky himself. Included are Debussy's Clair de lune and Saint-Saëns's Allegro appassionato.

Mischa Maisky is an impassioned performer, a flamboyant stage presence and a genuine talent. This intimate and emotional performance of music for violoncello and piano is saturated with sensuality. French art songs provide Maisky with great fodder for his deeply personal interpretations. These compositions from the late 19th to early 20th centuries are rich with flowering lyricism. As a French impression of the traditionally German music form, they have a certain verve that launches a musician of Maisky's stature to another world.

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.

Maisky takes the dual role of soloist and conductor on this single disc issue. It receives a well-deserved Penguin Rosette in The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2009. I wasn't familiar with the works on this CD before buying it. I'm an avid classical music CD collector and not too shabby amateur pianist (heavy emphasis on the amateur) and am currently listening to a course on Papa Haydn by Robert Greenberg from "The Great Courses" (formerly The Teaching Company), in addition to personally working on a Haydn Piano Sonata. As such, I've got a new found appreciation for this composer.

SCHUBERT: SONGS WITHOUT WORDS is an elegant recital by pianist Daria Hovora and cellist Mischa Maisky that allows us to hear Schubert songs, beautifully rich as they are with the texts as sung by many of our finest singers, here solely for the instrumental line. Somehow the interplay between melody and accompaniment (always an equal partnership in Schubert's hands) is heightened by this experience. Not that the entire album is appropriated by the cello standing in for a vocalist: the opening work is "Sonata for Arpeggione and Klavier" and is one of the highlights of the CD. But just listen to the performances of 'Standchen', 'An die Musik' and 'Du bist die Ruhe' and hear the extraordinary marriage between the piano and cello, singing as beautifully as any other version. This is one of those CDs that bears keeping out for multiple listenings in the late evening.

Wow! This is music making on a cosmic scale. You may hear some jaded critic offer up the following generic comment about this release: "These three players, gathered together for only the second time, naturally can't equal the subtle give and take of more established chamber ensembles." Bull. All three artists rank among the most inspirational and experienced chamber players of our time, and here they set the notes on fire in performances of shattering intensity, improvisational spontaneity, and (in the Tchaikovsky) Herculean grandeur. Argerich's performance of the concerto-like piano part of the Tchaikovsky Trio is especially impressive; she seems to know instinctively when to dominate the proceedings and when to let her partners take over; and the final "Theme and Variations"–a huge movement half an hour in length–seldom has sounded so cohesive and meaningful. As to the Shostakovich, well, what can I say? This is one of the most profoundly moving experiences in music, and how well this trio knows it! The three players find the perfect tempo for the third movement Passacaglia, then build the tragic finale as inexorably as fate itself.

These three sonatas - composed originally for the viola da gamba and harpsichord - are very musically-appealing compositions. And unlike previous Baroque cahmber-music tradition, the harpsichord is not relegated to mere continuo but projected into the spotlight as co-soloist - perhaps to showcase some of Bach's keyboard virtuosity. There are several fine period recordings of these works on viola da gamba and harpsichord (Savall, Peri, Crum, Wispelwey) or modern cello with harpsichord (Ma, Tortelier). But if your taste favors all modern instuments (cello, piano), then this circa-80's CD by the legendary Martha Argerich and Misha Maisky is the ticket.

Ideally, a piano trio should be balanced in its voices and the parts more or less equally matched in expression, but it sometimes happens in late Romantic chamber music that an overwrought piano part can create the opposite conditions. In the Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor by Sergey Rachmaninov and the Piano Trio in A minor by Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, the piano is clearly the dominant force, because it carries most of the thematic material, harmonic textures, and dramatic gestures, and thereby reduces the violin and cello to subsidiary roles.

The chamber music of Strauss and Dvořák represents for Maisky and his long-time musical partner Pavel Gililov the fruits to years of music-making. Strauss’s Cello Sonata, written by the composer at the tender age of 19, does not have the uniformity or a clear sense of character that Strauss later developed in his Violin Sonata five years later. Notwithstanding, Maisky and Gililov manage to turn the piece positively into a thrilling performance, intelligently interwoven with their commanding dialogues.

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.

A truly beautiful and unique tracklist with rarities including Víkingur Ólafsson’s new arrangement for piano of a Bach Cantata, rare transcriptions for guitar, for mandolin and even String Quartet; alongside familiar Bach masterpieces, all played by the world’s greatest classical artists, curated and presented Deutsche Grammophon.