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Boccherini: Complete Violin Sonatas, Vol. 2

Brilliant Classics

$12.99 Nov 28, 2025

Luigi Boccherini composed just a single set of sonatas, Op.5, specifically for violin and piano. However, his commercial celebrity and his artistic reputation at the time, as a composer considered in the same breath as Mozart and Haydn, encouraged publishers to commission arrangements of other works. Such arrangements include this set of Sonatas published in London in 1780, made by Thomas Billington but admitted to the catalogue of Boccherini's works as G34-39. Igor Ruhadze and Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya have made the first ever complete recording of this set as a sequel to their 5CD set of Boccherini sonatas (96612) issued by Brilliant Classics in 2023. 'Looking forward to the sequel!' concluded the review in Diapason of that set, after praising the stylish spirit of musicianship and authenticity in the playing of both artists. Compared to their rivals on record, remarked the reviewer, 'the seduction is more demonstrative, the contrasts more accentuated, the sensuality and the feeling more showy.' Today, as Rudolf Rasch's booklet note remarks, we may prefer original works over arranged works; in the 18th century, such a preference was unknown. No one looked down on them. In fact, they made a composer's music accessible for those who could not perform them in their original format. There was hardly a format more accessible for music-making among friends than the violin sonata, in which the piano would take the lion's share of the harmony from the original work, with the principal melody line assigned to the violin. As well as these violin sonatas, Thomas Billington arranged Corelli's concerti grossi for solo keyboard, and composed a good deal of his own music. In these sonatas, he drew from Boccherini's Trios Op.4 and Op.6, Quartets Op.8 and Quintets Op.10. He was in any case emulating the example of Boccherini himself, who made several such arrangements. As always with Boccherini, there is no shortage of attractive melodies and upbeat, galant invention to contrast with the lyrical beauty of the slow movements. - Luigi Boccherini was born in the Italian city of Lucca in Tuscany, on 19 February 1743, the son of Leopoldo Boccherini, a cellist and double-bass player. The young Luigi received his first music lessons from his father and at the Seminario di San Giovanni in Lucca. The cello was to become his instrument. At the age of ten, he was apparently already so advanced that his father sent him to Rome for further studies at the end of 1753, where he possibly remained until 1756. Apart from a brief period in Vienna around 1760, he was in Lucca until he set out to Paris (perhaps the major musical centre of the time) in the spring of 1768. Later that year he would go to Spain, where he would remain for the rest of his life until his death on 28 May 1805. - This new recording is the second volume of the complete violin sonatas, works in which the pianoforte plays a significant role next to the solo violin. - Critical praise for violinist Igor Ruhadze and pianist Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya: 'The early-music world needs more performers like Igor Ruhadze... This is some of the most accomplished historically informed violin playing I have heard in a long time.' Fanfare (Geminiani, 96524). 'Nepomnyashchaya provides a lesson in how one may realize such sonata bass lines. Her accompaniment is varied in texture and detail, balancing right-hand countermelodies with arpeggiated chordal washes of sound and heavy block chords at cadences. Like Ruhadze, she is a consummate specialist in Baroque style and practice.' - 'These musicians make a strong case for the violin-keyboard duo as an artistic medium. 'Strongly recommended for the music itself and for the dedicated, exciting performances.' Fanfare (Locatelli, 94376).

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Boccherini: Complete Violin Sonatas, Vol. 2
Brilliant Classics Nov 2025
CD
$12.99

Mix & Match

Sollima: Orchestral Works (1945-1997)

Brilliant Classics

$14.99 Jul 17, 2026

Outside Italy-perhaps beyond the shores of his native Sicily-the name of Eliodoro Sollima (1926-2000) has not traveled widely, beyond the accomplishments of his five musical children, and in particular the cellist Giovanni Sollima. On a previous Brilliant Classics album (96287) from 2022, Giovanni paid a touching tribute to his father's memory with a collection of chamber music. "This album is a winner!" reported Fanfare magazine, and noted how the "compositional style of this substantial and serious composer developed significantly" between 1945 and 1995. This new album of Eliodoro Sollima's orchestral music covers a similar period, between the Aria for cello and strings (1945) and Attesa (1997). Attesa ("Waiting") is the most substantial piece on the album, scored for the unusual combination of piano, horns, strings, and percussion: a powerful seven-movement suite inspired by the suffering of a man given the death penalty in the US state of Virginia and executed in 1997. Sollima worked within a tonal framework to evoke, in his words, "the frantic sequence of images, memories and emotions that torment the last hours of a condemned man's life." The pianist and musicologist Anna Maria Sollima (sister to Giovanni) supplies insightful annotations, which trace the course of Eliodoro's life and career through the works recorded here. World premieres on record include the early Ouverture da camera (1948/50) and Rondò burlesco (1951) for piano and orchestra, carried forward by strong, cinematically flavored melodies. From 1968, the Concerto per archi (Concerto for strings) is another work with a political subtext, inspired by the shock arising from the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. But Sollima always stayed true to his Sicilian roots and continued to translate the idioms of local folk music in his own contemporary style: a commitment exemplified by Nenia e recitativo, a concertante piece for cello and strings. Seekers of 20th-century tonal voices will find in Eliodoro Sollima a distinctive and compelling personality, to which these performers do full justice.

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Sollima: Orchestral Works (1945-1997)
Brilliant Classics Jul 2026
CD
$14.99

Mix & Match

Faure: Cello Sonatas / Ben-Sasson, Sternfield

Naxos

$19.99 Feb 23, 2010

FAURÉ Music for Cello and Piano • Ina-Esther Joost Ben-Sasson (vc); Allan Sternfield (pn) • NAXOS 8570545 (70:06)

Sicilienne, op. 78. Sonata No. 2, op. 117. Après un rêve, op. 7/1. Elégie, op. 24. Romance, op. 69. Berceuse, op. 16. Papillon, op. 77. Sérénade, op. 98. Sonata No. 1, op. 109. Pavane, op. 50

A blurb on the back cover of this album states that “Fauré’s musical language bridged a gap between 19th-century Romanticism and the music that appeared with the new century.” Sounds like something I’ve said before, even having gone so far as to say that Fauré is the missing link between Brahms and Debussy. Whether one chooses to accept that argument or not, it cannot be denied that Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924), a disciple of Saint-Saëns and an admirer of Schumann, Liszt, and Wagner, had, by the turn of the 20th century, largely fashioned a personal style based on the teachings of Gustave Lefèvre, as set forth in his book Traité d’harmonie , published in 1889. In it Lefèvre advances the idea that chords of the seventh and ninth are not dissonant, ergo, they do not require resolution; and that the third of the scale may freely alternate between major and minor within a “composite” scale that incorporates both modes. These ideas were of course embraced by the likes of Walter Piston and Roger Sessions in their own updated 20th-century treatises on harmony. And one hasn’t far to travel from the unresolved sevenths and ninths of Lefèvre and Fauré to the chromatically altered seventh, ninth, 11th, and bi-tonal chords, and the whole-tone and pentatonic scales of Debussy.

Most of the works on this disc are early to middle Fauré, and thus closer in content and style to the romantic aesthetic than they are to the composer’s later efforts. And three of the pieces are arrangements of works originally written for other media. The famous Après un rêve of 1870, presented here in a transcription by Pablo Casals, was conceived as a mélodie for voice and piano. The 1878–79 Berceuse was a violin and piano piece. And the ubiquitous 1887 Pavane , given here in an arrangement by Henri Büsser, was an orchestral work with choral parts later added.

Placing the remaining numbers, originally for cello, in chronological order, we have the Elégie (1883), the Romance (1894), Papillon (1894), Sicilienne (1898), the Sérénade (1908), the First Sonata (1917), and the Second Sonata (1921). While Fauré’s output did not cease in the decade between the 1898 Sicilienne and the 1908 Sérénade , it’s interesting to note that his 1898 incidental music to Pelléas et Mélisande was quite possibly his final doffing of his 19th-century Romantic hat. There’s no questioning that the next few years were a time of reexamination for Fauré. Surely, he must have heard Debussy’s opera based on the same play that was premiered in 1902, and possibly even Schoenberg’s exactly contemporaneous tone poem on the subject. And though I doubt that Sibelius would have been known in France at this early date, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Fauré may even have heard the Finnish composer’s 1905 incidental music of the same title. Whatever the extent of Fauré’s exposure to these various stimuli may have been, changes in his compositional style and technique become evident with his 1906 song cycle La Chanson d’Eve , op. 95.

Both of the cello sonatas belong to Fauré’s late period, the second of the two being among his last works. While still conforming to a Classical three-movement fast-slow-fast pattern, the harmonic language is now freer and the melodic treatment more fluid, giving a sense that the music is “through-composed.” With the exception of an 1888 Petite pièce in G Major, op. 49, which has been lost, the current Naxos disc, as far as I know, gives us all of Fauré’s original works for cello, plus the three aforementioned arrangements.

German-born, prize-winning cellist Ina-Esther Joost Ben-Sasson studied with Pierre Fournier and Sergiu Celibidache. She is today an Israeli citizen, and principal cellist and frequent soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Her discography, at least according to Naxos’s brief bio, includes the Bach suites for solo cello, but I was not able to find it, or any other of her recordings, listed. Allan Sternfield is a “made in the U.S.A.” product, having studied at Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory of Music. He was subsequently coached by Leon Fleisher and Wilhelm Kempff.

Naxos has here entered into competition with itself, for another fine release on the same label with Maria Kliegel and Nina Tichman, minus the Pavane , contains exactly the same program. Such duplication seems odd, especially since both discs seem to have been recorded only a year and a half apart. The current Joost/Sternfield CD, just released, was recorded mid 2007; the Kliegel/Tichman, released in 2008, was recorded late in 2005. It’s a head-scratcher to be sure. Be that as it may, a comparison between the two reveals little difference, certainly not enough to warrant purchasing Joost/Sternfield if you already have Kliegel/Tichman. J&S offer an extra with the inclusion of the Pavane , a piece you’re already bound to have in its original orchestral version. In general, though not in every single case, J&S are a bit slower in their tempo choices than K&T in the short pieces, and considerably so in the two sonatas. This may impart a somewhat more nostalgic feeling to J&S’s readings, which can, at times, suggest a salon atmosphere. But in terms of technical execution, tone production, and intonation, I would be happy with either recording.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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Faure: Cello Sonatas / Ben-Sasson, Sternfield
Naxos Feb 2010
CD
$19.99

Weinberg: Complete Violin Sonatas Vol 2 / Kalnits, Csanyi-Wills

Toccata

$20.99 Nov 19, 2013

WEINBERG Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes (arr. Weinberg). Violin Sonatas Nos. 2 and 5. Sonata No. 2 for Solo Violin • Yuri Kalnits (vn); Michael Csányi-Wills (pn) • TOCCATA 0026 (70:58)

Mieczys?aw Weinberg’s output continues to emerge on CD. One of the more interesting features of the Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes is that the music has a certain Hassidic quality, meaning the use of minor keys and descending melodic passages with flatted 7ths and 6ths. Of course, much Eastern European ethnic music falls into this category, including Rumanian and Polish music, but these themes (the notes explain) were consciously chosen because Weinberg’s mother came from Kishinyov (now Chisnâu), where “Bessarabian musical folklore was strongly influenced by the huge Jewish population.” The exuberant and exciting way Weinberg manages his musical materials makes the piece more than just a trifle. The composer made this violin-piano arrangement from his original orchestral version (of which there is a fine recording by Vladimir Lande and the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra on Naxos 8.572779) with fingerings for the solo part provided in the published score by David Oistrakh.

The Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano, composed in 1944, was not premiered until 18 years later, by Oistrakh and pianist Frieda Bauer. Its opening theme sounds very much like the Rhapsody, but its development is much more along the lines of Shostakovich’s music. Happily, Weinberg avoids—consciously or unconsciously—the crudeness of much of Shostakovich’s music and the streaks of self-pity. It is serious music, yet imbued by palpable energy in the first movement and wonderful lyricism in the second. The catchy but offbeat rhythm of the last movement rides the Sonata off into an almost ferocious Finale.

This is the first recording of Weinberg’s Second Sonata for Solo Violin. Composed in 1967, annotator David Fanning explains that its overall tone is “less confrontational in character and more of a suite in overall conception.” Indeed, the music is very quirky, its seven movements given titles descriptive of musical terms ( Monody, Rests, Intervals, etc.), and so diverse that one can very well imagine the individual movements being played alone in concerts. It is, however, well written and employs a great amount of contrast within each movement, short though they are (the timings range from 1:27 to 3:38, with most of them averaging around two minutes). In places, almost aggressively abrasive dissonances give way to fascinating in brief development sections.

Weinberg’s Fifth Violin Sonata dates from 1953, shortly after he was released following a harrowing 11 weeks at the Lubyanka prison on the charge of “Jewish bourgeois nationalism.” Like in his Second Sonata, and more so in the Rhapsody, Weinberg here “absorbs folk-like intonations” into his style, but the synthesis is now more complete, showing his marked maturity as a composer. There is a wonderfully plaintive quality in the first movement, for instance, where Weinberg simplifies his style harmonically and produces a simply gorgeous spun-out melodic structure. And here, particularly, Kalnits displays an almost otherworldly sense of pathos and lyricism, which then turns into lyricism combined with forward momentum in the rapid second movement. The third movement ( Allegro moderato ) is wistful and almost nostalgic in character despite its energetic tempo, as is the Finale (note, particularly, the diminuendo on the last high note). What excellent music this is!

Kalnits is a good violinist with strong emotion and wonderful empathy for this material, though his tone tends towards wiriness and a bit of whining in the upper range. Csányi-Wills is a fine, sensitive accompanist. Together they make a strong case for most of this music becoming part of the standard repertoire.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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Weinberg: Complete Violin Sonatas Vol 2 / Kalnits, Csanyi-Wills
Toccata Nov 2013
CD
$20.99

BEETHOVEN: SONATAS FOR CELLO AND PIANO

ONYX CLASSICS

$29.35 May 03, 2019

Leonard Elschenboich is joined by pianist Alexi Grynyuk for a program of Beethoven's five cello sonatas, which span his three creative periods. The audacious Op.5 sonatas date from his early years in Vienna as a piano virtuoso and aspiring composer (1792-99). The great Op.69 sonata is from the same period that saw the composition of Symphonies Nos.4-8, the Violin Concerto, Mass in C and the String Quartets Op.59. The two Op.102 sonatas are from the cusp of the 'late' period. This is the time of the Symphony No.9, the Missa Solemnis, the great string quartets Op.127-135 and the last five piano sonatas. The cello and piano are truly equal partners in all these works, and Beethoven exploited the full range of the cello - placing great demands on the player. The Op.17 sonata from the 1790s was composed for horn and piano. The transcription is believed to be by the composer, or at least approved by him.

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BEETHOVEN: SONATAS FOR CELLO AND PIANO
ONYX CLASSICS May 2019
CD
$29.35

Postcards from Ukraine, Vol. 3 – Folk Dialogues

Toccata

$20.99 Apr 10, 2026

The first album of Postcards from Ukraine gave a potted history of Ukrainian music in the form of a series of miniatures for piano and violin, and the second presented four outstanding chamber works by important Ukrainian composers. This third instalment brings six new arrangements of Ukrainian folksongs, for violin and piano, by Markiyan Melnychenko, integrating them into a programme of folksong- and dance arrangements by some of his best-known virtuoso predecessors.

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Postcards from Ukraine, Vol. 3 – Folk Dialogues
Toccata Apr 2026
CD
$20.99

Mix & Match

French Violin Sonatas

Gramola Records

SACD

$36.99 Mar 07, 2025

On this double SACD, "Paths into Impressionism" are taken: starting with the two important Sonatas for Violin and Piano by Gabriel Faure, the first of which was already described as a masterpiece by Camille Saint-Saens, and four other short pieces by Faure, the great Salzburg violinist Thomas Albertus Irnberger and the German pianist Michael Korstick, who is already very familiar with the French idiom through many of his own recordings, present further works from the French and Belgian repertoire in their usual masterly and spirited interpretations: the Sonata by the early deceased Guillaume Lekeu, which was commissioned and premiered by Eugene Ysaÿe, and Maurice Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Piano (with a Blues as the middle movement), which is characterized by Ravel's view that violin and piano were fundamentally incompatible. The resulting manifold parallel developments and bitonal frictions create specific stimuli, though without showing even the slightest hint of the music falling apart. Ravel's "Kaddish" and the "Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Faure", dedicated to his teacher, can also be heard, as well as the Sonata by Francis Poulenc, written in collaboration with Ginette Neveu and dedicated posthumously to Federico Garcia Lorca, and the fascinating work "Theme et variations" by Olivier Messiaen, which he dedicated to his first wife, a violinist, and which still contains many impressionistic elements.

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French Violin Sonatas
Gramola Records Mar 2025
SACD
$36.99

Salomon Jadassohn: Symphonies 1-4

CPO

$36.99 Apr 14, 2015

Yes, this music is ridiculously conservative, as we might expect from a founder of the post-Mendelssohnian Leipzig school, but with a difference. Unlike so many of his colleagues Jadassohn, who composed these four symphonies between 1860 and 1888, keeps all of their elements in scale. They are brief (about thirty minutes maximum), immaculately scored, tuneful, and not afraid to be light without ever turning frivolous. Indeed, in their day these works were criticized for their lack of profundity. Today, we can see this as one of their greatest virtues.

The First Symphony looks back less to Mendelssohn than to Schumann, with better scoring. Consider the scherzo, and try to guess the composer. After that, the range expands a bit. Jadassohn had a genuine lyric gift, evident in the two Cavatinas for violin and cello, respectively, and also at such moments as the slow movement of the Third Symphony. With the Fourth Symphony, in C minor, Jadassohn does strike a more serious note, but once again at no point does it ever seem that he’s stretching his material farther than it wants to go. He knows how to keep his music moving, and he’s not ashamed of the fact that he’s not Beethoven. That’s saying a lot.

The performances by the Brandenburg State Orchestra under Howard Griffiths are quite good, with characterful contributions from the woodwinds and nice, clean ensemble generally. In the two Cavatinas, Thomas Georgi (cello) and Klaudyna Schulze-Broniewska (violin) play sensitively and don’t overload their predominantly gentle solo lines. The sonics are also naturally balanced and warm. Jadassohn’s symphonies may not be “important,” but they are wisely written, attractive pieces and for that reason well worth getting to know.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Salomon Jadassohn: Symphonies 1-4
CPO Apr 2015
CD
$36.99

Paganini: Music for Violin & Strings / Gabriele Pieranunzi

Brilliant Classics

$6.99 ~~$13.99~~ Save 50% Oct 27, 2023

Paganini was the first great ‘star’ of instrumental music, the precursor of the rock stars of today, able to induce collective hysteria as well as to dictate fashion and to influence the behaviour of entire generations. He did this by transforming the violin into an orchestra of multiple voices and timbral experimentation, in other words, stretching the very limits of what a single instrument could do.

This programme is particularly interesting, both for the quality of the performances as well as the new chamber-string versions created by Francesco Fiore and Salvatore Lombardo. It also juxtaposes extremely popular Paganini works alongside compositions not very often heard in the concert hall but which help flesh out our understanding of the artistry of a composer too often misjudged as merely an acrobat of the violin. In four of Paganini’s best-known compositions – the ‘Campanella’ (Bell) movement from the Violin Concerto No.2, the Moses Fantasy, the Witches’ Dance and the Cantabile – the solo violin is here accompanied by a string quintet. In the first three, the string quintet stands in for the orchestra with a consequent lightening of accompaniment. In the Cantabile, the original of which was for violin and piano (Paganini’s only piece to be accompanied by keyboard rather than guitar), the ‘heavier’ quintet accompaniment still manages to retain a discreet sense of enjoyable sophistication.

The next two works, Nos. 6 and 3 of the 6 Sonatas Op.3 for violin and guitar, are presented here in transcriptions for two or three violins. These two sonatas, written in the salon style typical of the age, delight the listener with the conversational nature of the violin writing. Finally come three compositions in their original versions, providing an excursion into a lesser-known, but still very interesting, area of Paganini’s chamber output. The three Duetti concertanti for violin and cello were written for the enjoyment of amateur players, each comprising two movements

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Paganini: Music for Violin & Strings / Gabriele Pieranunzi
Brilliant Classics Oct 2023
CD
~~$13.99~~ $6.99

Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos; Romances / Pine

Cedille

$19.99 Sep 24, 2013

MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in e. SCHUMANN Violin Concerto. BEETHOVEN Romances Nos. 1 and 2 • Rachel Barton Pine (vn); Christoph-Mathias Mueller, cond; Göttinger SO • CEDILLE 90000144 (71:20)

Rachel Barton Pine’s new release on Cedille Records contains a pairing of the violin concertos by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, plus the two short Romances by Ludwig van Beethoven. When Mendelssohn became Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1835, he made his friend Ferdinand David the concertmaster. In a letter dated July 30, 1838, Mendelssohn wrote to him: “I should like to write a violin concerto for you next winter. One in E minor runs through my head, the beginning of which gives me no peace.” He worked on it for six years, during which he kept up a regular correspondence about it with the violinist. David premiered it with his orchestra in1845, the last year of the composer’s life.

Barton Pine plays this most familiar piece with quite a distinctive interpretation. Her first movement is light, fast, and dripping with passion. She lets you know she is enjoying the pace as she rises to the challenge. Her blazing bow work and perfectly intoned notes are always impeccably smooth as the fingers of her left hand fly through the movement with seeming ease. The imaginative phrasing of her expressive Andante soars over the orchestra with limpid, poignant beauty. She plays the beginning of the third movement with ardor and the wonderful Finale marked Allegro molto vivace with amazing artistry and technique. As we all know, the most renowned violinists of the 20th and 21st centuries have recorded it so the competition is fierce. Joshua Bell recorded the Concerto for Sony in 2002 with Roger Norrington and the Camerata Salzburg. His performance is tasteful and inviting, but I think it lacks some of Barton Pine’s intensity and excitement. Recording in 1995 on Deutsche Grammophon, Anne Sophie Mutter plays beautifully, but her interpretation lacks some of the individual flair and drama heard on the Cedille disc. A more recent release is Alina Ibragimova’s Hyperion recording, a historically informed performance of the Concerto with Vladimir Jurowski and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Her playing is exciting but she does not have Barton Pine’s depth of understanding. Reaching back into history, there are some great performances by artists such as Henryk Szeryng, but their sound is nowhere near the present state of the art.

Like the Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann’s Concerto has many renditions despite its difficult birth. Although Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim, and Johannes Brahms consigned it to a shelf, by now it has earned a place in the hearts of the music-loving public. Barton Pine plays it with a deep emotional commitment that is palpable throughout her performance. Henryk Szeryng plays it together with the Mendelssohn Concerto on a Mercury Living Presence CD released in 1994. On a Teldec disc, also released in 1994, Gidon Kremer’s rendition of the Violin Concerto is paired with Martha Argerich’s interpretation of Schumann’s Piano Concerto. Known for his individualism, Kremer plays the first and third movements much slower and with greater deliberation than Barton Pine, but his second movement is faster. Barton Pine’s first two movements are slower than Szeryng’s, but she plays the finale faster than either Szeryng or Kremer. All of that pales in comparison to these fine artists’ interpretation of this great but much maligned work. With her judicious use of rubato and a tasteful interpretation, Barton Pine has put her indelible stamp on the Schumann. She has come to love it intensely and she is teaching her fans to love it as well.

The two Beethoven Romances are a charming addition to this excellent disc. Since one is placed between the concertos and the other is at the very end, they add moments of contemplation that allow the listener to fully absorb the untrammelled joy of the Mendelssohn and the deeply compelling lyricism of the Schumann. Christoph-Mathias Mueller and the Göttinger Symphonie of Lower Saxony give stellar performances of the orchestral parts of each work. Except for one slightly muddy note at the very end of the Mendelssohn, the sound on this Cedille recording is brimming with life and it allows you to feel as if seated in the 10th row center of a fine concert hall. I heartily recommend this delightful recording.

FANFARE: Maria Nockin

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Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos; Romances / Pine
Cedille Sep 2013
CD
$19.99

Beethoven: Complete Sonatas for Piano & Violin / Roscoe, Little

Chandos

$43.99 Feb 26, 2016

After a "sublime" (BBC Music) complete set of Schubert’s violin sonatas with Piers Lane, Tasmin Little joins Martin Roscoe in this recording of the complete violin sonatas by Beethoven.

In all, Beethoven wrote ten sonatas for piano and violin, and seems not to have entertained ideas for other works in this genre. All but one may be regarded as early works: only Op. 96, in G major, which was composed almost a decade after the last of the other nine, does not fall into this category. As a group, then, the violin sonatas do not offer a conspectus of Beethoven’s stylistic development such as we find in the string quartets, piano sonatas, symphonies, and even cello sonatas. But each work is a masterpiece in its own right, original, full of vitality, idiomatic for both the pianist and violinist who are equal-ranking participants in the ensemble, and executed with consummate compositional skill.

Reviews:

One is very much aware of two distinct personalities, each with plenty to say about this music. There's even a sense of friendly rivalry - and all to the good. Little's expressive style is generous and extrovert, Roscoe's at times more inward looking…this is an impressive achievement, and beautifully recorded.

– BBC Music Magazine

Little and Roscoe come across as being very attuned to one another. The particular brand of fantasy in the Kreutzer suits them particularly well, and from its Bachian solo-violin opening onwards there's a real fire to the first movement.

– Gramophone

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Beethoven: Complete Sonatas for Piano & Violin / Roscoe, Little
Chandos Feb 2016
CD
$43.99

Egon Wellesz: Piano Concerto; Violin Concerto

Capriccio

$21.99 Apr 27, 2010

WELLESZ Piano Concerto , op. 49 1; Violin Concerto , op. 84 2 • 1 Margarete Babinsky (piano); 2 David Frühwirt (vn); Roger Epple, cond; RSO Berlin • CAPRICCIO 5027 (53:15)

Egon Wellesz, born in Vienna in 1885, is among the group of composers of “degenerate art” who survived the Nazi era physically, but not artistically. Like Braunfels, Zeisl, Mittler, or to a lesser degree Hartmann, his music died twice: once when the Nazis declared it “degenerate” and forced him into emigration, then again when the heavily subsidized postwar arts scene thought him not “degenerate” enough—too tonal, too beholden to music rather than organized sound. Even the many, many honors he received in the 50s, 60s, and 70s—in that sense he was luckier than many a colleague with a similar fate—smacked of guilt and placation, not genuine interest in his œuvre.

Wellesz was taught by Guido Adler (also Webern’s professor), became one of the first private students of Schoenberg, and later Schoenberg’s first biographer. In 1974 he died a CBO scholar in Oxford but was buried in his unappreciative home town, Vienna.

On this disc, further exploring “lost” 20th-century repertoire, Capriccio presents a piano concerto that decidedly, finally, doesn’t remind me of Ravel’s! Not that I don’t adore Ravel’s piano concertos to pieces; I do. It’s just that it started to seem like a strange running joke how anything from Zeisl to von Einem ( Fanfare 33:6) to Krenz ( Fanfare 33:2) seemed to remind of Ravel’s G-Major work. Wellesz doesn’t, partly because of his bold writing for piano and a more reticent orchestral part. From the first movement’s unhurried orchestral introduction over an impatient, then calming piano part, to the sudden spunk that picks up at around the two-minute mark, there is little that would immediately, much less invariably, remind one of any other composer. The virtuosic spikes that the pianist traverses, meanwhile, don’t just strike me as jazzy because I am listening to it (and writing this) as I am at a jazz festival in Bolzano, between gigs in this medieval town in South Tyrol. Pianistic ruminations and short orchestra exclamation marks take turns, with much of the material given to the solo piano. The five-minute, unintrusive slow second movement has the ability to just flit by if you don’t pay attention. The orchestra attempts to wax lyrically; the piano interrupts with coy runs. The third movement takes over stealthily with another slow introduction before virtuosity breaks through once again, pulling through to the end with some rambunctiousness and grand gestures. All together the work is not, to my ears, as wholly marvelous a discovery as Eric Zeisl’s (cpo 777226), to mention just an even more obscure work from a composer with a similar-enough biography. But it’s well worth listening to if concertos in general, and that lost period of music in particular, are of interest to you.

The same verdict stands for the Violin Concerto from 1961—even though it is considerably different in style. If you know Wellesz’s symphonies (also on cpo), you will have noticed a distinct break between the essentially late-Romantic symphonies Nos. 1 through 4 and the more explicitly modern Nos. 5 through 8. Wellesz called his Violin Concerto the brother of his Fifth Symphony and that is reflected by a greater—belated, if you will—incorporation of some elements of the serialist school. All movements are based on the same material, albeit a situation that Wellesz claimed to have discovered only after the fact.

The work manages to suggest density while retaining clear lines, and it is—at four movements—considerably more expansive than the Piano Concerto. After its premiere it was favorably compared to Berg (which it obliquely refers to) and Schoenberg. I don’t hear the beauty in it that I hear in the Berg (which, it should be pointed out, benefits from the advantage of far greater exposure, familiarity, and tons of wonderful recordings). It also seems less austere than Schoenberg’s concerto. Listeners who can just be brought to enjoy or accept the harmonic language of the Piano Concerto will find the Violin Concerto less attractive; tougher listening. But with some good will they should be able to access that work, too … especially via the Andante sostenuto, the fourth and last movement which, a terse and frenzied cadenza apart, has repose and considerable lyricism to offer. The violin part in the first movement has a good deal of electric, buzzing moments that are highly enjoyable. For getting to know the composer Wellesz, I’d start with the symphonies, but if they have turned you on already, then his two full-size concertos will be a mandatory expansion pack.

I know it must be frustrating for soloists or ensemble musicians when their work is done away with in one sentence, only because they are not famous enough to have pre-impressed the critic. This kindly dismissal usually takes place with adjectives like “adequate” or “perfectly acceptable.” Unfortunately for lack of comparison, knowledge of the score, and any immediately sensed enthusiasm about the playing (as in the Wetzler recording— Fanfare 33:4—for example), that’s exactly what I’ll have to do. Certainly the soloists Margarete Babinsky, David Frühwirt, or the Berlin RSO under Roger Epple don’t stand in the way of enjoyment.

FANFARE: Jens F. Laurson

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Egon Wellesz: Piano Concerto; Violin Concerto
Capriccio Apr 2010
CD
$21.99

Gyrowetz: Flute Quartets, Op. 37 / Ardinghello Ensemble

CPO

$18.99 Jan 20, 2023

Adalbert Gyrowetz is one of the numerous, highly talented Czech musicians of the 18th century who received an excellent education in Prague and then turned to the musical centers of Europe. His music is strongly influenced by the classical language of Haydn. Architectural structures, harmonic progressions of tension, instrumentation, disposition of a cycle, representation of affect, and the general idea of music as a balanced language of feeling and reason dominate the aesthetics of this style. The quartets for flute and string trio are all in three movements with the tempo sequence fast-slow-fast. Around 1800 this was rather the exception, since Haydn's mature string quartets had established four movements. The duration of the pieces is about the same as the total duration of a "normal" four-movement chamber work of the time.

In addition, it is interesting that the voices, especially those of the flute, violin, but also viola and cello, feature rapid and virtuosic solos. Gyrowetz thus writes a cycle of three lively quartets that want to be nothing more than virtuoso divertissements and amusements with esprit. The composer has succeeded in this!

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Gyrowetz: Flute Quartets, Op. 37 / Ardinghello Ensemble
CPO Jan 2023
CD
$18.99

Mozart: Quintets / Hough, Frost, Vlatkovic, Imai, Villa Musica Ensemble, Orlando Quartet

BIS

$42.99 Sep 09, 2014

Mozart's string quintets, and particularly the last four (K 515, K 516, K 593 and K 614) are often cited as being among the finest examples of his chamber music. The musicologist Charles Rosen has drawn attention to the fact that the quintets always appeared shortly after the completion of a series of quartets, as if the medium represented a more ideal and final realisation of the composer’s musical thoughts. It is not, however, a question of quartets with a fifth, ‘extra’ part. Even the early K174 possesses a striking complexity, and as a group the quintets employ a great variety of textures: dialogues between two instruments with three-part accompaniment from the others, the alternation of two string trios (two violins and viola or two violas and cello), or violin duets, alongside viola duets, accompanied by the cello. The performances of these intricate masterworks by the Orlando Quartet and Nobuko Imai, have been highly regarded ever since their original releases and were for instance described as 'magisterial and gripping' on AllMusic.com. They now appear in this box set, accompanied by a fourth disc which brings together three further Mozart quintets for varying constellations: the charming Horn Quintet from 1782, the extraordinary Clarinet Quintet from seven years later and the Quintet for piano and winds which Mozart in a letter to his father in 1784 described as 'the best thing I have written so far'. Performing these works here are eminent musicians including Radovan Vlatkovic, Martin Fröst and Stephen Hough.

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Mozart: Quintets / Hough, Frost, Vlatkovic, Imai, Villa Musica Ensemble, Orlando Quartet
BIS Sep 2014
CD
$42.99

Beethoven: The Piano Trios, Vol. 2

Alpha

$20.99 May 22, 2026

For this second volume of their complete Beethoven piano trios, the Busch Trio illustrates the great variety that the composer was able to draw from an ensemble of just three instruments. The Trio in G Major, begun in 1793, is the second of three published in Vienna as Opus 1. The Trio in E Flat, WoO 38, was written in 1790-1791 in Bonn: it is unusual in that it has three movements in the same key and no slow movement. The charming Allegretto in E Flat was written by a young Beethoven experimenting. The Allegretto in B Flat, WoO 39, takes us back to 1812, the era of the famous 'Archduke Trio'. Finally, the Variations in E Flat Major, Op. 44, are a series of variations on arias from a little-known opera by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf. 'When practising, rehearsing, and performing Beethoven's works, it is impossible not to be overcome by the joy, courage, the love for life and humanity,' conclude the musicians of the Busch Trio.

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Beethoven: The Piano Trios, Vol. 2
Alpha May 2026
CD
$20.99

Mix & Match

Beethoven: Piano Concertos No. 4 - Mendelssohn: Concerto for

Signum Classics

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Jun 15, 2018

Pianist Min-Jung Kym makes her recording debut on Signum Records, leading the Philharmonia Orchestra under conductor Clemens Schuldt in performances of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, and joined by Zsolt-Tihamer Visontay for Mendelssohn's Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra in D Minor. Steinway Artist Min-Jung Kym has acquired an internationally recognized reputation performing with some of the world's leading orchestras and musicians, and has enjoyed collaborations including with (amongst others) Barry Wordsworth, Alison Balsom, the Haffner Ensemble, Pierre Amoyal, Leon Bosch, Joy Farrall, Andrew Haveron, Sergey Levitin, Adrian Brendel, Thomas Carroll, Mats Lidstrom and the soprano Susan Bickley. Min-Jung was the 'pianist of choice' for the masterclasses of the legendary violinist Ruggiero Ricci. "Min-Jung is an exceptionally talented pianist, with a wonderfully controlled and even technique, combined with a highly sensitive approach to the music." (Ruggiero Ricci)

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Beethoven: Piano Concertos No. 4 - Mendelssohn: Concerto for
Signum Classics Jun 2018
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

The Voice of Stradivari - Giovanni Gnocchi (cello), Alessand

MV Cremona

$24.99 Aug 07, 2026

Antonio Stradivari's 1700 'ex Cristiani-Stauffer' cello, considered to be one of the master's finest works, was purchased by the Walter Stauffer Musicology Center in Cremona. It is now on display at the Violin Museum in Cremona. The history of this cello, though at times uncertain, suddenly becomes clear when it comes to Lisa Cristiani, a Parisian cellist who acquired the instrument, definitively linking her name to Stradivari and the cello. Lisa died very young in 1853 at just 26 years old, a fleeting star on the musical scene of her time: in just a few years, she enchanted audiences with her extraordinary cello. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy dedicated his Song Without Words, Op. 109, to her. But today, you can hear 'The Voice of Stradivari,' the voice of this precious cello, on this CD released by the Italian label MVcremona. The excellent performers are the cellist Giovanni Gnocchi, born in Cremona like Stradivari's cello, and the pianist Alessandro Stella. According to the renowned Italian critic Angelo Foletto, on this CD, 'Gnocchi exploits with loving interpretative skill and virtuosic ease every quality of the 18th-century 'Stauffer ex Cristiani' Stradivari cello, constructing a listening adventure of intriguing poetic subtlety and an intelligent assortment of accents.' SUONARE news, dicembre 2025 This cd includes some pieces written by cellist-composers themselves (Popper and Klengel). Other pieces were transcribed by famous concert performers and cello virtuosos of modern and contemporary times (Piatigorsky, Schiff, Isserlis). Others were dedicated by composers to their cellist friends, as in the case of Dvorak and Hanus Wihan, Liszt and Bernhard Cossmann, the living composer Ducros and Jerome Pernoo and Mendelssohn, who dedicated his Romances sans paroles op. 109 to Lisa Cristiani, then owner of this beautiful Stradivari. The final piece is an Italian masterpiece composed by Gioacchino Rossini: 'Une larme, theme et variations'. The combination of elegiac cantabile and explosive virtuosity encapsulates the characteristics that have inspired the musical choices in this CD. Rediscovered only in recent decades, it belongs to the Peches de vieillesse, the 'sins of old age' as Rossini called the many compositions he wrote in his later years and never published because, as he said, 'I do not publish anything; I only write because I cannot do anything else'. Composed in 1858, it offers the musician all the most typical elements of Rossini's genial style.

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The Voice of Stradivari - Giovanni Gnocchi (cello), Alessand
MV Cremona Aug 2026
CD
$24.99

Mix & Match

Saint-saens: Violin Sonata No 1; Berceuse; Triptyque / Clamagirand, Cohen

Naxos

$19.99 Apr 30, 2013

SAINT-SAËNS Violin Sonata in d. Berceuse, Op. 38. Elégies: No. 1 in D, Op. 143; No. 2 in F, Op. 160. Sarabande et Rigaudon, Op. 93. Romance in D?, Op. 37. L’air de la pendule triptyque, Op. 136 • Fanny Clamagirand (vn); Vanya Cohen (pn) • NAXOS 8.572750 (68:01)

This CD turned out to be more than a pleasant surprise; it turned out to be a sheer delight. I wasn’t sure what to expect from two relatively young and relatively unknown (on record, at least) artists in Saint-Saëns’s frequently essayed Violin Sonata in D Minor, but the performance by Fanny Clamagirand and Vanya Cohen proved positively persuasive and more than competitive with some of the very best, among which I would count my first recording of the piece with Heifetz and Emanuel Bay on a 1950 RCA LP, along with more recent versions by Gil Shaham and Gerhard Oppitz on Deutsche Grammophon, and the very impressive young violinist Jack Liebeck with Katya Apekisheva on Quartz.

Clamagirand (b. 1984), a past graduate student of Jean-Jacques Kantorow at the Paris Conservatory, sports a robust tone that projects with a good deal of authority, yet is of an alluring sweetness. Saint-Saëns’s D-Minor Sonata, the first and by far more popular of two he wrote, can invite some coarseness in tone in a number of its rough-and-tumble passages, but Clamagirand will have none of it. She cuts through the slashing first-movement chords without slashing them, and she springs sprightly through the ricochet-like spiccato bowing in the Allegretto moderato . Vanya Cohen, born in 1980 in Monaco of Russian parents, leaves no doubt in her confident delivery of the piano part that Saint-Saëns’s swirling and whirling score is as much piano sonata as it is violin sonata. This is as brilliant and thoroughly convincing a performance of the piece as I know.

The most enchanting aspect of this album, however, is the short, salon-like pieces that fill out the disc to a generous 68 minutes. All in all, not counting the two sonatas, Saint-Saëns composed no more than six opus numbers originally scored for violin and piano, and on the present disc we have all but one of them, the Caprice brilliant in B Minor of 1859. In its place, Clamagirande and Cohen give us the Romance, op. 37, originally for flute and piano, but published with an alternate version for violin. And for extra measure, they also give us the Sarabande et Rigaudon , op. 93, originally a work for orchestra.

It would be inaccurate to say that these pieces are entirely absent from the catalog, but according to current listings, they’ve received scant attention on disc; and that’s really a shame, for there’s not one of them that’s not a real charmer. This is a most enjoyable program, and it’s one performed to the highest standards by two exceptionally talented artists. Very strongly recommended.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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Saint-saens: Violin Sonata No 1; Berceuse; Triptyque / Clamagirand, Cohen
Naxos Apr 2013
CD
$19.99

Gal: Concertinos

Haenssler Classic

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% Oct 06, 2023

As a young man, the composer Hans Gál witnessed an artistic turning point, for it was during the First World War that late Romanticism met the modern musical era. Everything was in motion. He himself was however critical of many musical initiatives and admitted: “I had too little in common with my contemporaries”. Indeed, the orchestral surges of the Wagnerites were just as alien to him as the atonality of the Second Viennese School championed by Alban Berg and Anton Webern. The pared-down sounds of Neoclassicism and the “new objectivity” of the likes of Paul Hindemith were likewise of little use to Gál. Therefore, in his adherence to tonality and use of sophisticated formal progressions, he created a distinctive style of his own that he steadfastly embraced throughout his life.

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Gal: Concertinos
Haenssler Classic Oct 2023
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Ireland, Delius & Bax: Cello Sonatas

Lyrita

$20.99 Jul 07, 2017

John Ireland's Cello Sonata in G minor was written in 1923 and premiered the following year on April 4th by the Cellist Beatrice Harrison wit pianist Evlyn Howard-Jones at teh Aeolian Hall, London. The composer himself performed the Sonata many times as pianist with several cellists including Antoni Sala, who prnounced it ''the best cello sonata of modern times'', and recorded it with Ireland on the Columbia label in October, 1928. Frederick Delius' four violin and piano sonatas were written between 1892 and 1930 and so chart comprehensively his creative development. Violin Sonata No. 3 forms a part of the remarkable Indian summer of composition made possible by the blind and paralyzed composer's collaboration with Eric Fenby. Lionel Handy arranged the Sonata for cello and piano in 2012 and on November 23 of that year he gave the first public performance of his transcription with Nigel Clayton as pianist at a concert held in The Warehouse, London to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Delius's birth. Arnold Bax is widely regarded as an orchestral composer. However, he also wrote a significant quantity of chamber music. One of his most impressive works for the instrument, the Cello Sonata in E flat was writte in 1923 at a time when his popularity and standing aong British composers was at its height. Completed on November 7 of that year, the Sonata was premiered on February 26, 1924 at the Wigmore Hall with Harriet Cohen accompanying Beatrice Harrison, to whom the score was originally dedicated.

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Ireland, Delius & Bax: Cello Sonatas
Lyrita Jul 2017
CD
$20.99

Bach: Suites For Violoncello Solo / Anner Bylsma

Sony Masterworks

$24.99 Nov 23, 2011

It is thought that Bach’s Suites for solo cello were written between 1717 and 1723, at about the same time as his works for solo violin, but no original manuscript remains. The cello suites are less flamboyant than the violin works, so present the greater challenge in communication; like Shakespeare’s texts, understanding depends on the subtlest of phrasing, rhythm and intonation.

The Dutch baroque cellist Anner Bylsma brings to this new set (he recorded the suites 11 years ago for RCA Seyon) a remarkable range of expression – vigorous, playful, impetuous and elegant, with extraordinarily fine articulation and elasticity of phrasing within the framework of each movement. Bylsma here records on one of Stradivarius’ great cellos, the ‘Servis’ dating from 1701, which is an extremely rare example of the ‘bassetti’, a large instrument 3 cm longer than the modern cello. For this recording, he uses a plain gut A string, with the three lower strings metal-overspun, which gives a particularly full, muscular sound, unusual for a baroque instrument.

-- Annette Morreau, BBC Music Magazine

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Bach: Suites For Violoncello Solo / Anner Bylsma
Sony Masterworks Nov 2011
CD
$24.99

Bosmans: Early Chamber Music / Solarek Piano Trio

Toccata

$20.99 Aug 05, 2022

The three works by the Amsterdam-born Henriëtte Bosmans (1895–1952) in this album all date from her early to mid-twenties. The Violin Sonata and Piano Trio are substantial pieces, both animated by the passion of youth – and, given their quality, it is astounding that they should be receiving their first recordings here. At this stage in her life Bosmans was still writing in an expansive, Romantic style, although echoes of French Impressionism, Spain and the Middle East can often be heard – and from time to time the Violin Sonata nods to Bach and Reger.

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Bosmans: Early Chamber Music / Solarek Piano Trio
Toccata Aug 2022
CD
$20.99

Viotti: Duos for 2 Violins

Brilliant Classics

$12.99 Oct 11, 2024

Giovanni Battista Viotti composed 29 violin concertos, three sinfonie concertanti, a cello concerto, countless quartets, at least 20 trios for two violins and cello and an impressive array of violin duos, four of the latter recorded here. Described in contemporary reports as a generous and highly charismatic musician driven by idealistic zeal, he is now universally recognised as one of the greatest violinists of all time. In hindsight, it is clear that he and his vast oeuvre occupied a key historical position. He appeared at a pivotal moment between the end of the ancien regime and the start of the modern era: a period when, in social terms, music began to escape the courts and entertain the growing middle classes, laying the foundations for modern concert-going and the figure of the freelance musician. A period when various national traditions, both in terms of instruments and compositions, began to meet and influence each other with unprecedented dynamism, and when the formal rigour of Classicism gave way to the pathos of Romanticism. Viotti was at the heart of this time of dramatic change: the standard-bearer for a centuries-old Italian violin school that included Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, Pietro Locatelli, Giuseppe Tartini and Viotti's teacher Gaetano Pugnani. He took this esteemed group's technical achievements away from the Baroque and Galant style into a new era, with the arrival of Niccolò Paganini just around the corner. He was admired by Mozart, inspired the virtuosity of Paganini's concertos, was central because of his years lived in London to the evolution of British musical life, and must surely be considered the most significant figure in the entire French violin school. Later violin giants Pierre Rode, Rodolphe Kreutzer and Pierre Baillot were all strongly influenced by his work Viotti's renowned cantabile style is echoed in the violin writing of both Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms and is amply represented in the four violin duos on this album. Other information: - Recorded November 2022, Cagliari, Italy - Booklet in English contains liner notes by Carlo Goldstein - Gianmaria Melis plays a 1745 Sanctus Seraphin; Fabrizio Falasca plays a 1727 J. Guarneri - The Italian liner notes are available for download at www. Brilliantclassics. com - Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824) received his musical education from Gaetano Pugnani. He served for a short time at the Savoy Court in Turin but soon he spread his wings and travelled to Paris, where he was an instant success as a supreme violin virtuoso. He served for a time at the court of Versailles before he founded an opera house in Paris (Theâtre de Monsieur). The French revolution urged him to go abroad and he settled in London, where he featured in the Hanover Square concert series and was active as a concert organizer and impresario, as well as one of the founders of the Philharmonic Society of London. - Viotti was an influential violin player and teacher. He composed violin concertos, string quartets, and other chamber music for strings. Based on the principles of the Viennese Classics it hints at more romantic feelings of times to come. - This new recording presents the duos for 2 violins, music of great charm, rich in melodies and brilliantly written for both instruments, which are fully equal to each other. - Played by Fabrizio Falasca and Gianmaria Melis, playing a 1727 Guerneri and a 1745 Sanctus Seraphin violin.

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Viotti: Duos for 2 Violins
Brilliant Classics Oct 2024
CD
$12.99

Ginastera: Complete Music for Cello and Piano / Kosower, Jee-Won Oh

Naxos

$19.99 Jun 24, 2008

GINASTERA Pampeana No. 2. 5 canciones populares argentinas (arr. Kosower). Puneña No. 2, “Homage à Paul Sacher.” Cello Sonata • Mark Kosower (vc); Jee-Won Oh (pn) • NAXOS 8.570569 (52:10)

Ginastera was one of those composers who, in continually evolving and experimenting, could not easily be pinned down stylistically. His famous Harp Concerto, written for Osian Ellis, is as different from his stark, atonal opera Bomarzo (still one of the neglected masterpieces of the 20th century) as night is from day. Yet despite his evolution, he did break his music into three styles: objective nationalism, subjective nationalism, and neo-Expressionism. Cellist Mark Kosower presents all three styles here by transcribing the Cinco canciones populares (“Five Popular Songs”), music of objective nationalism, from their original voice setting to the cello. The CD, however, starts with a subjective work, the Pampeana No. 2 , in which folk music is never actually quoted but suggested in his original themes. Compressing four sections into one continuous piece lasting only nine minutes, Ginastera tried to capture the alternating feelings of ebullience, awe, and melancholy that crossing the pampas evoked in him. It is a marvelous piece, played with tremendous élan by Kosower and Oh.

I found this transcription of the five popular Argentine songs to be effective but not entirely convincing as cello music. It’s the sort of piece that I’m sure I would enjoy in a live concert setting, but listening on record, I found myself becoming restless. Some of this, however, stems from Oh’s piano accompaniment, which I found carefully crafted but emotionally cold. Kosower plays with warmth of tone and generous spirit, but these are still songs. I want to hear a voice, I want to hear words. Falla’s Popular Spanish Songs works for the violin; these do not translate quite as well, at least not for me.

Ginatsera’s neo-Expressionist period, his last and longest (1958–1983), is the one that includes both the unaccompanied Puneña No. 2 and the Cello Sonata. The first work is intended to capture the feelings of the mysterious world of the Inca Empire, and is divided into two movements, a melancholy love song (“Harawi”) and a wild carnival dance (“Wayno karnavalito”). I personally found Kosower’s performance of the first movement to be lacking in atmosphere. Whether this is due to the actual music or merely his interpretation of it is difficult to determine. In the second movement, Kosower has great energy for the Argentinean rhythms, and the highly imaginative writing (including octave glisses into the stratosphere and rapid finger triplets) brings out some wonderful effects on the cello. This was, for me, one of the highlights of the entire recital, and I was sorry when it was over.

The Cello Sonata is a real masterpiece in every respect. From its opening jagged rhythms to the sizzling finale, this is a work that constantly entertains as it challenges the listener. Despite an almost constant use of bitonality and tone clusters, there is an almost modal feeling to the first movement—at least, until the music melts down into the collegamento section. The music still hovers around tone clusters, but its range is tightly circumscribed. The second movement, an Adagio passionato, is extremely odd. To begin with, the music moves at a snail’s pace, more of a Lento than an Adagio. For another, there is no forward propulsion at all. In a way, this sounds like subconscious music, very close to the effects created by “automatic composers.” Every phrase sounds as if it were being improvised into being—at least, until the piano begins a more energetic rumbling, followed later on by dramatic singing, flourishes, and suspenseful silences in the cadenza. The third movement, Presto mormoroso, is a murmuring piece that begins with a note here and there, the instruments alternating as if in dialogue. Both instruments climb into the upper registers as piano flourishes suspend time at the movement’s midpoint. The change in pitch begins the musical inversion; at the cello’s reentry, the two instruments play in retrograde back to the beginning, disappearing into nothingness. The final movement is an uninhibited romp, starting in marcato clusters before moving into wild passages combining sonata form with a toccata and complex interplay between the two instruments. As Kosower puts it in the liner notes, “The explosive nature of the music is fueled by syncopated dance rhythms including the Karnavalito, obsessive running sixteenth notes, sudden shifts in material, and a boldness of character.”

Overall, the performance of the Sonata is quite good; even pianist Oh plays with more boldness than on the other pieces. It is certainly finer than the poorly recorded version by Carter Brey and Christopher O’Riley (Helicon) and, in the recording by the Sonata’s dedicatee, Aurora Natola (Pierian), her superb work is undercut by the rhythmically driving but lead-footed playing of pianist Barbara Nissman. I feel that the other performances could be improved on somewhat, but this is still an interesting disc and a good place to start in these works.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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Ginastera: Complete Music for Cello and Piano / Kosower, Jee-Won Oh
Naxos Jun 2008
CD
$19.99

Rautavaara: Works for Cello & Piano / Tetzlaff, Sussmann

Ondine

$17.99 Feb 09, 2018

The passing away of Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928–2016), one of the most performed Finnish composers after Sibelius, left a deep void in the field of Finnish contemporary music. This new album by cellist Tanja Tetzlaff and pianist Gunilla Süssmann includes Rautavaara’s rarely heard works written for cello and piano. The cornerstone of Rautavaara’s cello chamber music are the three sonatas. The earliest of the sonatas was written in 1969 and contains Baroque influences. Prior to this, the composer had already written Two Preludes and Fugues for cello and piano in 1955 firmly rooted in the Neo-Classical tradition as a young student. Soon after completing his solo cello sonata, the composer started writing his Neo-Romantic Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1. However, the work was left unfinished and completed almost 30 years later, in 2001. Cello Sonata No. 2, completed in 1991, is much different in style, more modern and edgy, but based on a work written for a cello music competition in 1975. Polska (1977) for two cellos and piano is based on a folk tune from Rantasalmi. The origin of this work is connected to the genesis of Rautavaara’s first published opus, Fiddlers (Pelimannit) from the early 1950s. Song of My Heart (Sydämeni laulu) is the composer’s transcription from an aria included in his opera Aleksis Kivi (1995–96). In 2000, Rautavaara arranged the piece for cello, and fittingly for this funereal piece dedicated it to the memory of Estonian composer Lepo Sumera.

REVIEW:

As a mind-blowing display of technical accomplishment, I can only offer my congratulations to Tanja Tetzlaff who has a gorgeous Guadagnini cello of 1776 and an outstanding long-term piano partner in Gunilla Sussmann. Very good recorded quality and most highly recommended.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

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Rautavaara: Works for Cello & Piano / Tetzlaff, Sussmann
Ondine Feb 2018
CD
$17.99