STRAUSS: “DON QUIXOTE.” SCHOENBERG-MONN: CELLO CONCERTO. Yo-Yo...

STRAUSS: “DON QUIXOTE.” SCHOENBERG-MONN: CELLO CONCERTO. Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Boston Symphony conducted by Seiji Ozawa. CBS Masterworks IM-39863 (digital). Ma delivers the protagonist’s role in these “fantastic variations” with the ample singing tone, uncommon dexterity and wide dynamic contrasts that justify his high reputation among contemporary cellists. But the performance misses the last, all-important degree of urgent characterization among the 11 individual movements. Ozawa emphasizes lightness rather than weight, allows the glorious Boston winds their place at the microphone, but fails to impose any striking personality on the piece. The brilliantly, almost impossibly, virtuosic Schoenberg concerto holds no obstacles for Ma, who tears through its diabolically scored passage work with sublime ease. Playing like this may even give pastiche a good name.