Customer Reviews

Beethoven: The Cello Sonatas

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There is little more one could ask for in these buoyant, dramatic, glowing and felicitous performances by cellist Lynn Harrell and pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. Both demonstrate a wonderfully unforced style of play, which at moments can be commanding, poetic and even aristocratic, and I feel their readings surpass the very fine ones of Rostropovich/Richter and Tortelier/Heidsieck. Though Rostropovich possesses that wonderful, big sounding tone, in these sonatas he tends to pass over phrases too quickly for me, as does Richter. On the other hand, I feel the duo of Tortelier/Heidsieck is a bit too deliberate in its accents and a little too slow in its pace. Tortelier also seems to lack Harrell's golden tone which I find very satisfying. There are many noteworthy moments in this Harrell/Ashkenazy set, but listen especially to the splendid opus 69 Third Sonata, where the two players seem to be at their finest in quality of expressiveness and instrumental interplay. Some real magic unfolds here. Incidentally, the recorded sound on these discs is excellent, and exceeds that which is given the others in their presentations.

A truly wonderful recording,with the right combination of technical perfection coupled with emotion. And the addition of the Opus 17 Horn sonata was a good choice. Ashkenazy and Harrell are in top form (as is Tuckwell). This collection is an absolute must.

This was the first time I met these Sonatas.
Actually, when I bought this disc, Because of the Title:
Cello Sonatas
I thought I was going to hear Sonatas for Cello Solo,
Like the Suites By Bach...
I Quickly fell in love with the Cello Sonatas, esspecially
the last three...
And what a Beautiful surprise it was to hear the Magnificent
and Charming Horn Sonata Op. 17 !
The Three Musicians Play extremly well!
esspecially Ashkenazy with his light touch
and Tuckwell with his inthusiastic (I hope I spelled it right)
Playing!

I like Harrell and Ashkenazy's playing of the sonatas. The 1 star is because the recording of the Rondo finale of the G minor sonata (8:12) is missing the first note and part of the duration of the second note at the very beginning. It's hard to imagine these seasoned veterans re-interpreting a well known work like this (and I have heard many other recordings as well as seen the score), so the only explanation is that someone bungled while editing the recording and cut off the 0.5 seconds of music at the start of the finale. This appears to be true of both the CD and mp3 versions. I had a hard time explaining this to the Amazon customer service representative, so I just paid $1 and bought the same track played my Emmanuel Ax and Yo Yo Ma (which thankfully is not missing this imperfection) - a bit of a band-aid fix. So, if you're a perfectionist, beware!
Beethoven: Complete Sonatas for Piano & Cello.

If for some reason you need more proof of Beethoven's genius then look no further than the Opus 69 Cello concerto. Here's one of those transcendant masterpieces only possible from a true musical wizard. And Harrell and Ashkenazi know how to coax every ounce of emotion and intensity from it. If you don't own this piece of music then you need to and this is the performance to own.