HAYDN: CELLO CONCERTOS [Gautier Capu?]

This brilliant recording has deservedly garnered a swag of European awards. It is not unusual for boy geniuses to be catapulted to fame by recording companies and then to be just as swiftly discarded. Hopefully 23-year-old Gautier Capu? has both the staying power and marketability to go the distance. His playing is agile, exciting and ruminative, as required, and is marked by exceptional conviction and maturity of insight. Haydn’s cello concertos are so beguiling in their melodic displays that it is easy to miss how difficult the music is when confronted with Capu?’s effortless playing. He does a stellar job with some fiendishly difficult passages and his more reflective playing in the adagio of the D major concerto is heart-stoppingly gorgeous. The disc includes not only the two genuine Haydn concertos but also another wrongly attributed to him, which while not as good as the real thing is an interesting filler. The credit for this disc ought not go entirely to Capu? -“ he is accompanied by another young go-getter, Daniel Harding, the 28-year-old who last year took up the musical directorship of Claudio Abbado’s Mahler Chamber Orchestra. The young orchestra -“ average age 29 -“ provides dynamic and close accompaniment under Harding’s skilled leadership. This is a must-have recording by young stars who make one hopeful for the future of classical music. If this disc makes you hungry for more Capu?, try the Mendelssohn Piano Trio in which he is paired to dazzling effect with Martha Argerich and his violinist brother Renaud Capu?. It’s coupled on EMI with Argerich and Lilya Zilberstein doing Brahms’s Sonata For Two Pianos.