Customer Reviews

Frank Peter Zimmermann and Heinrich Schiff Play Honegger, Martinu, Bach, Pintscher, Ravel

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This could be the soundtrack for your life! Everything on here is ink black and spooky, with two bits of Bach thrown in as palate cleansers.The Ravel stacks up nicely with my live Oistrakh, without the coughs and bad sound. It is a varied program: the Honegger and maybe even the Martinu are items one could reasonably expect to rarely or never encounter in the concert hall.The Matthias Pinscher will be the deal breaker for some; I find it passes without pain or any great joy. I cannot imagine anyone being dissapointed with either Zimmerman's pointed phrasing or Schiff's round, black tone.

I don't remember now how I stumbled upon this album, but it's the one that allowed me to discover Frank Peter Zimmermann, whose interpretation of these intellectually deep works lives up to their depth and challenge. I have since bought other CDs featuring Zimmermann, the most recent of which is his double CD on Bach's violin sonatasBach Sonaten Fr Violine und Klavier BWV.It showed an emotive side of Bach that was new to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed this new find. These two CDs are quite different, but Zimmermann demonstrated that he possesses both intellect and sensitivity, but never a dose of sentimentality.

Of all of Honegger's chamber music the only piece to be recorded with any frequency is this duo - and with good reason, it has a structural clarity and harmonic simplicity not always found in his thornier works. It's one of his most brilliant and perfectly realized compositions and continues to fascinate after repeated hearings. The Martinu is a typically excellent bit of counterpoint from this composer. The Ravel is a work of extreme contrasts. This quality is highlighted by the performance which moves from a brutal opening to a slow movement of the greatest delicacy. The Pintscher is sound effect piece which seems a bit out of place here. The highpoint of the album is two Bach canons from the Art of the Fugue - Bach at his most sublime. It's amazing how much can be accomplished with only a violin and cello in the hands of two superb players and some great composers.

I got this on a recommendation from Amazon when I bought Chonquri. It is equally eclectic, but not quite as interesting.