BaL 11.07.15 - Brahms: Sonata no. 2 in F Op. 99 for Cello & Piano

[EdgeleyRob]

Jackie and Danny for me!

Absolutely,made for Jacqueline du Pre this music.

[DoctorT]

The Tortelier recording I possess is with Maria de la Pau. Is that the one on your list, EA?

[LeMartinPecheur]

As implicit in my #9 I have Natalie Clein on CD. Surprised to see how as a Brahms chamber music devotee I'm not exactly overloaded with his cello sonatas.

But then I was rather slow to 'get' the 1st, even though the 2nd made an early big hit. So for a long time the Starker/ Katchen LP did me nicely with its coupling of the 2nd pf trio (very conveniently, no overlap as an impoverished student with a Supraphon LP of the Suk Trio in the other 2 trios ###). Somehow I found the 1st sonata too growl-y, too confined in the cello part to the bottom of the range. Anyone else find these two works unusually different/ inconsistent in quality?

Not so many years ago I picked up the Starker/ Sebok WRC LP in a charity shop to finally put one Op38 on the LMP shelves. Then after hearing her in concert (though not in Brahms) I succumbed to the Clein CD. Last summer I got a s/h copy of the Du Pre/ Barenboim LP, still unplayed.

So I'll be listening with interest, but not planning to rush out for another version.

Checking my live concert records I'm surprised to find that I've heard Op99 only twice, from Rohan de Saram and Alice Neary, and Op38 never. So is the latter viewed in the trade as a bit of a failure??

[Sorry if I've run a bit OT, but then CDs of the 2nd do tend to drag the 1st along too; and I don't recall many discussions of the two works together]

### WRONG, it was the 3rd trio only c/w Mendelssohn. Had to wait till the Suk/Starker/Katchen 1 and 3 came out on Ace of Diamonds before Op 8 reached my LP shelves.

[Pulcinella]

Have just dug out my BBC Music Magazine CD: Ralph Kirshbaum and Roger Vignoles, Bath Festival 1996.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Romantic-Cello-Beethoven-Kirshbaum/dp/B00BHMHBYS

Space being as limited as it is here, and not being into downloads, this will probably do for me, but I intend to listen all the same.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Just pushing the thread up the list for tomorrow. I somehow get the impression this isn't a work that many boarders care about

Come to think of it, this was a work I liked a lot as a student 40 years ago, but these days I don't listen to it anywhere near as much as the LvBs, Shoster and Prok. Oh dear

[gurnemanz]

Just pushing the thread up the list for tomorrow. I somehow get the impression this isn't a work that many boarders care about

Come to think of it, this was a work I liked a lot as a student 40 years ago, but these days I don't listen to it anywhere near as much as the LvBs, Shoster and Prok. Oh dear

Nudged me into showing I care. I recently got the good value Rubinstein Brahms box on RCA which includes a recommendable Op 99 with Piatigorsky on cello.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Enjoy the programme while you can. It's the last BaL until mid-September.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Nudged me into showing I care. I recently got the good value Rubinstein Brahms box on RCA which includes a recommendable Op 99 with Piatigorsky on cello.

Thanks for the reminder gurnemanz: I'd forgotten that one! Sadly, it's at the bottom of a horribly tall 'to play' stack, one of many, that I'm peering over as I write...

[LeMartinPecheur]

Oops, EA's blushes just spared: in second place the Duo Anger-Gerassimez who weren't even on the Runners & Riders

To be fair, they're only just on the Riverpeople's listing (import, just the one copy available...for the moment anyway)

And if the Perenyi winner was with Kocsis, that's download only (There's also a live Wigmore version with Varjon which I don't think got a mention.)

[soileduk]

Interesting, a CD Review winner not presently available as a CD.

[ardcarp]

...not a unique occurrence.

[visualnickmos]

Can't you just feel the heat this BaL has generated!

That said, I did quite enjoy the presentation. I quite liked the 'winner' but it doesn't seem to be available anywhere on God's earth......
Surprised Slava got relatively short shrift. I quite like his CD with Serkin. Du Pré and Barenboim - OK maybe it has its flaws, (not the right word, but my brain's not having any of it today!) but it's a highly energised and indeed intimate performance. What's not to like, here...?

[LeMartinPecheur]

Du Pré and Barenboim - OK maybe it has its flaws, (not the right word, but my brain's not having any of it today!) but it's a highly energised and indeed intimate performance. What's not to like, here...?

What we heard today has inspired me to spin the s/h Du Pre LP mentioned above. Just hope it is playable OK, doing it now - report later...

Which kinda brings me back to something I've probably aired before. LP, pick side 2 and you get the 2nd sonata, no more, no less, seemples. With CD unless you go through the palaver of programming the machine, you get both sonatas, and probably a filler too

[Nick Armstrong]

Can't you just feel the heat this BaL has generated!

I enjoyed listening to this BAL but must confess I nodded off through part of the second half

I find I have the Isserlis/Evans disc - don't think it got a look in during the review, did it?

I also find that I can never have made it past the first movement - didn't recognise the very lovely slow movement at all! That's good! A new Brahms discovery!

[visualnickmos]

I enjoyed listening to this BAL but must confess I nodded off through part of the second half

I find I have the Isserlis/Evans disc - don't think it got a look in during the review, did it?

I also find that I can never have made it past the first movement - didn't recognise the very lovely slow movement at all! That's good! A new Brahms discovery!

I'm pretty sure it did, but I cannot remember anything that was said about it!