Checking out new classical recordings with Baltimore roots

Collage: Amit Peled, cellist; Noreen Cassidy-Polera, pianist. Works by Rachmaninoff, Sulkhan Tsintsadze and David Popper. Centaur.

The popular cellist and Peabody Institute faculty member Amit Peled is captured here in typically vibrant form. Playing the cello previously owned by the revered Pablo Casals, Peled performs Rachmaninoff's rhapsodic G minor Sonata with a natural flow, considerable tenderness and unfailing style. Smoothly partnered by pianist Noreen Cassidy-Polera, the cellist also brings abundant technical and interpretive nuance to Tsintsadze's "Five Pieces on Folk Themes." The recital is capped by Popper's "Tarantelle," another piece ideally suited to Peled's lively personality.