  The spectra of light-light and heavy-light mesons are calculated within the
framework of the QCD string model, which is derived from QCD in the Wilson loop
approach. Special attention is payed to the proper string dynamics that allows
us to reproduce the straight-line Regge trajectories with the inverse slope
being 2\pi\sigma for light-light and twice as small for heavy-light mesons. We
use the model of the rotating QCD string with quarks at the ends to calculate
the masses of several light-light mesons lying on the lowest Regge trajectories
and compare them with the experimental data as well as with the predictions of
other models. The masses of several low-lying orbitally and radially excited
heavy--light states in the D, D_s, B, and B_s meson spectra are calculated in
the einbein (auxiliary) field approach, which has proven to be rather accurate
in various calculations for relativistic systems. The results for the spectra
are compared with the experimental and recent lattice data. It is demonstrated
that an account of the proper string dynamics encoded in the so-called string
correction to the interquark interaction leads to an extra negative
contribution to the masses of orbitally excited states that resolves the
problem of the identification of the D(2637) state recently claimed by the
DELPHI Collaboration. For the heavy-light system we extract the constants
\bar\Lambda, \lambda_1, and \lambda_2 used in Heavy Quark Effective Theory
(HQET) and find good agreement with the results of other approaches.
