Customer Reviews

Duos for Violin & Cello

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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This is a 57-minute collaboration of inspired string playing by two extraordinary musicians playing at the top of their games. Lynn Harrell shreds his normally buttoned-down approach and matches Kennedy's boiling bow bar for bar in this time-space voyage from French fantasy, to baroque repetition with variation, to Hungarian folk, and back to Bach. In the opening sonata duo, the pair move seamlessly from cool and lyrical to spitfire hot and back in a take-no-prisoners interpretation of Ravel at his bizarre best. The two transport their intensity back 200 years in Halvorsen's adaptation of Handel's minor key harpsicord passacaglia. They then pass from passacaglia to Bartok's gypsy passion, taking it to the limit and beyond. Harrell and Kennedy go from seething to soothing in closing with Bach's sweet E major two-part invention. What a ride!

Who says classical music is boring?

I got this CD as a "package" along with a baroque CD I was quite familiar with. I have always been partial to the cello, and thought this sounded like a great buy, which it is. I like it..but I have to keep listening to it. Becuase it is only cello and violin, some of the compositions remind me of scores from psychological thrillers or horror movies, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just, a bit heavy. The musicians are amazing however, so it makes this purchase worthwile. Perhaps I just need a bit more maturity for this.

This CD reminds me of summer camp . . . we played many of these tunes for fun. It would be wonderful to hear Mr. Harrell play Cole Porter with another cellist. That would be prima!