Gautier Capuçon gives a richly lyrical and sympathetic account of Herbert's Concerto, reaching heights of eloquence in its beguiling slow movement and revelling in the virtuosity of the latter parts of the finale.

Though the name of Victor Herbert is nowadays associated above all with Broadway musicals like Naughty Marietta, Herbert was in fact a multi-talented musician, one of the world's leading cello virtuosos of the time and the composer of two cello concertos which greatly influenced Dvorák in the United States to write his supreme masterpiece.
That makes this coupling of Dvorák's Cello Concerto with the second and finer of Herbert's an apt one, and Gautier Capuçon gives distinc- tive, characterful and intense performances of both works, well supported by Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt orchestra, especially strong in its brass section.
In the Dvorák the fruity-toned Frankfurt horn gives a beautiful account of the great second-subject melody even though it is dangerously slow. In the exposition with soloist, Capuçon takes that section a fraction faster and the result is magical.
As in the Herbert the slow movement is deeply elegiac, while the incisive finale leads to a dedicated account of the beautiful epilogue. Altogether a version of this much-recorded work which stands comparison with any in the catalogue, made the more attractive by the coupling.

…Gautier Capuçon gives distinctive, characterful and intense performances of both works, well supported by Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt orchestra, especially strong in its brass section. In the Dvorák the fruity-toned Frankfurt horn gives a beautiful account of the great second-subject melody... In the exposition with soloist, Capuçon takes that section a fraction faster and the result is magical. As in the Herbert the slow movement is deeply elegiac, while the incisive finale leads to a dedicated account of the beautiful epilogue.

Gautier Capuçon's account of the Herbert that makes the bigger impression. He captures the work's rhapsodic ambitions and the lyrical charm of its slow movement perfectly, whereas his reading of the Dvorák seems a bit withdrawn and underpowered. Anyone wanting a definitive recording of the Dvorák has plenty to choose from elsewhere, but for the Herbert this version just about has it all.