Rachmaninov, Franck: Cello Sonatas
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Composer: Sergey RachmaninovComposer: Cesar Franck
Performer: Stephen Hough
Performer: Rebecca Evans
Edition: Music CD
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2003-07-08
Music Label: Hyperion UK
Soundtracks:
- Pieces (2) for cello & piano, Op. 2: Prelude
- Pieces (2) for cello & piano, Op. 2: Oriental Dance
- Sonata for cello & piano in G minor, Op. 19: Lento. Allegro moderato
- Sonata for cello & piano in G minor, Op. 19: Allegro scherzando
- Sonata for cello & piano in G minor, Op. 19: Andante
- Sonata for cello & piano in G minor, Op. 19: Allegro mosso
- Le sylphe, song for voice & piano, M. 73
- Sonata for violin & piano in A major, M. 8: Allegretto ben moderato
- Sonata for violin & piano in A major, M. 8: Allegro
- Sonata for violin & piano in A major, M. 8: Recitativo. Fantasia. Ben moderato. Molto lento
- Sonata for violin & piano in A major, M. 8: Allegretto poco mosso
- Panis angelicus for tenor, organ, harp, cello & bass
Music reviews of Rachmaninov, Franck: Cello Sonatas
Music Review: Well-Balanced Performances
Rating: 5 Stars
Sergei Rachmaninov wrote his Cello Sonata in 1901, the same year as the Second Piano Concerto. This is his most famous chamber work and it is imbued with the sense of his nervous breakdown in 1897 following the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony.
The Cello Sonata begins with a movement that suggests struggle mixed with reflective passages. It is followed by a restless and dark Scherzo with a dreamy trio. The slow movement has a romantic quality that made me think of the piano concerto. The finale is an energetic and joyous movement that seems to look toward the future. Rachmaninov may be telling us something about his bleak disappointments but pointing toward a more positive future that lay before him.
Cesar Frank's Cello Sonata is a reworking of the Violin Sonata composed in 1886. A note in the booklet by Steven Isserlis points out that the sonata was originally conceived for cello but was cast for violin because he found a champion in the violinist Ysaye. The sonata was described by Frank as for either violin or cello. In any case, the music works well for either instrument.
There are some charming shorter pieces on the disc that include Rachmaninov's op. 2 from 1891. Caesar Frank's Le Sylphe and Panis Angelicus round out the disc with soprano Rebecca Evans joining Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough. The addition of voice with cello and piano makes an interesting combination. Ms. Evans has a beautiful voice that is well suited to the music. The recorded sound is crystal clear and beautifully balanced. There are many recordings of the Rachmaninov sonata but Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough give a beautifully colored and well-balanced performance. In addition, there is the interesting historical aside where Mr. Isserlis explains that he plays a passage from the finale other than indicated in the score. He explains that this is because his grandfather played the sonata with its dedicatee, Anatoly Brandukov, who played it louder than indicated, and had it from the composer.
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Description of Rachmaninov, Franck: Cello Sonatas
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.Steven Isserlis is not only one of the finest, but one of the most adventurous cellists around; you can always trust him to have a surprise in store. On this disc, he pairs two famous sonatas with two of their composers' unfamiliar pieces: a slow, singing Prelude and an exotic Oriental Dance by Rachmaninov, and two songs with cello obbligato, one secular, one sacred, by Franck. The playing throughout is beyond praise. Isserlis' instrumental mastery is complete; technical problems do not exist. His tone is beautiful, dark, warm, focused, infinitely variable in color, nuance and intensity, flawlessly pure on all strings and in every register. His playing is striking for its unfailing nobility; free but controlled, it is inwardly expressive but never sentimental, ardently romantic and passionate but never excessive. The slow opening of the Rachmaninov is pure magic: unvibrated, it feels like a reluctant, gradual awakening. The movement is played for poetic, pensive lyri! cism, not bravura, but builds up to a passionate climax and ends in a blaze of glory. The Scherzo is ominous, the Trio is warmly serene, the slow movement sings luxuriously, and the Finale is brilliant, joyful, triumphant. Pianist Stephen Hough gives free rein to his virtuosity, but never overpowers the cello; his approach is more freely rhapsodic than that of Isserlis, but their interplay, ensemble, and balance are excellent. They play the Franck so convincingly that one almost forgets this is really a violin sonata. (In his always enlightening, entertaining program notes, Isserlis claims that both versions are equally authentic.) Though one misses the shimmering radiance of the violin's high register in the corner movements, their dreamy, sunlit serenity remains intact; the cello tone has a floating, disembodied transparency, but builds up tremendous power in the climaxes. The second movement is fast and tempestuous, while the third is very free and imaginative, almost op! eratic in its contrasts and mood changes. --Edith Eisler
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