Dvorák got the idea for writing his Cello Concerto (surely the greatest work ever composed in that form) when he lived in New York and made the acquaintance of Victor Herbert who was a virtuoso cellist and classical composer as well as a writer of operettas. The Herbert concerto is tuneful and well made eminently worth owning and a good disc companion for the greater concerto it inspired. Yo-Yo Ma plays both with vitality and subtlety.--Joe McLellan