Walewska's entry (bar 8) (W13) is sad and subdued, the follow up dreamy and heart rending (bars 16-24) (W14), the recollection intense (bars 25-27), the climax dramatic (bar 28) (W15) and the following gentleness archetypes up to bar 35 yearning (W16).
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First Movement
Third Movement
Rostropovich is more objective (R13), though there is great respect for the events narrated (R14) and this prevents him from sharing the profound feeling expressed at bar 28 (R15) and forces him to slow down the archetypes at bars 29-33 unnaturally (R16).
The cello's entry from bars 42 to 57 reveals a cautious, subdued (R17), who is unable, even in the gentleness archetypes (all too feebly played) in bars 61-64, to communicate something of that "molto appassionato" written by Dvorak over these bars (R18).
W is quite different (W17). She observes the composer's annotations, without exaggerating (W18). No comment is needed on both artists' impeccable performances of the comment variations in bars 69-75, or the entry at bar 76, which is gentler with R (R19), more vibrant with W (W19). When, for the third and last time the sad gentleness archetypes turn into a soliloquy (bars 87-95), even R plays almost passionately, in a somewhat overbearing manner, a kind of retreat into the mind (R20).
W, on the other hand, lets the heart strings sing out, and the theme takes on a dramatic character, a last stand (W20). At bar 107 we have a cadenza, which is cheerful, noble and external in (R21); heart rending, self searching and internal in (W21). Up to bar 129 R is meditative, W outward looking. The subsequent dialogue with the orchestra (bars 129-134) sees a parallel calm, more concrete in (R22), who does not accept the dreamy character found in W at bars 135-144 (W22).
After the brief cadenza at bars 146-148, approaching the end, in (W23) one feels a sense of liberation and premonition of farewell, in R everything slows down and is almost frozen as if going on calmly towards "nothing" (R23).
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First Movement
Third Movement