Laura Metcalf, First Day, with Matei Varga

Laura Metcalf appears before us in all her cello warmth and virtuosity on the recent album First Day (Sono Luminus 92201). It is a unified program of vivid short works, most from the 20th century with a couple from the present-day, and a baroque perennial. They give her and pianist collaborator Matei Vargas plenty of expressive and lively music.

Ms. Metcalf has a beautiful tone, a projecting sense of line and an extroverted joie de vivre that matches the repertoire very nicely. The lesser known contemporary works--Jose Bragato's "Gracia y Buenos Aires," Caleb Burhans' "Phantasie" and Dan Visconti's bluesy "Hard-knock Stomp" blend right in with the more familiar fare. All give Laura a chance to soar rhapsodically with a goodly amount of that exotic minor flavor we associate with Eastern European and Spanish/Spanish-Latin American music.

So Ms. Metcalf seems just right for Martinu's "Variations on a Slovakian Theme," Ginastera's "Pampeana No. 2, Op. 21," Enescu's "Sonata in F Minor," Poulenc's "Les chemins de l'amour" (where we get a taste of her lovely voice as well), and an especially soaring version of Marin Marais (1656-1728) and his beautiful "Variations on 'La Folia'."

Laura Metcalf brings us a sense of assuredness and a projectively dramatic way that is forwarded wonderfully by Matei Varga. It is a most beautiful recital that proclaims Laura's arrival as a major present-day cellist.

It is something to revel in, surely. Molto bravo!