Born in Dublin and raised in Stuttgart, Victor Herbert flourished in New York, playing cello professionally, composing the operettas for which he is just about remembered today, and teaching at the National Conservatory alongside Dvorák. On hearing the premiere of Herbert’s Second Cello Concerto, Dvorák took some tips on solo-versus-orchestra balance, and felt so encouraged that he was finally able to write his own Cello Concerto.
Herbert’s two such works certainly spotlight the instrument’s qualities uncommonly convincingly and, while they may not deserve to be as famous as Dvorák’s, there is real lyricism and inventiveness here, even if inspiration is occasionally pummelled into mere competency by too much rhythmic repetition.
Mark Kosower is a red-blooded soloist, backed by the Ulster Orchestra under conductor JoAnn Falletta. We also get Herbert’s Irish Rhapsody, essentially a stock exercise in homesick audience-pleasing, but nicely done, and ending with an impressive folk-tune mashup.
