BaL 15.04.17 - Rachmaninov: Cello Sonata

[Nick Armstrong]

if it’s no good we’ll company-fund (one more needed for a crowd) and sue you

I'd better have another listen to the damn thing now! (Must be a couple of years. Hope I agree with myself )

[Beef Oven!]

I'd better have another listen to the damn thing now! (Must be a couple of years. Hope I agree with myself )

It really is a wonderful piece and I’m so pleased that this CD has the Chopin sonata as the coupling. Your discretion in such matters has an excellent track-record, I’m sure we’ll all be pleased (once you’ve listened to it again!). As Bryn says, quite a bargain too

[Pianorak]

Oh Lor! I'm stressed now!

Here's adding to your stress - all in a good cause, of course. The two recordings I have don't do it for me - third time lucky?

[ahinton]

It really is a wonderful piece and I’m so pleased that this CD has the Chopin sonata as the coupling. Your discretion in such matters has an excellent track-record, I’m sure we’ll all be pleased (once you’ve listened to it again!). As Bryn says, quite a bargain too

Yes, a marvellous piece indeed and, I think, quite often coupled with the Chopin which was his last major work. Whilst it's ample testament to its eminently justified popularity that there are so many available recordings (to say nothing of however many more that are no longer available), quite how Helen Wallace will be able to review 80 of them in less than an entire morning I have no idea!

[Nick Armstrong]

I’m sure we’ll all be pleased (once you’ve listened to it again!)

Well I took my old ASV Quicksilva (ugh) CD off the shelf and had a listen.



I still love the playing - I suppose my only objective reservation would be that the recording balance favours the piano over-much, as if the piano had been between the microphone and the cellist, it sounds rather like a sonata for piano with cello. Personally, I don't mind that, being a pianophile rather than a cellophile (and one who's had a crack or two at playing parts of the sonata with cellist friends - most of it's beyond me...). It seems more the case in the earlier movements than in the slow movement, which I think is absolutely gorgeous - not affected, not wallowing, just letting the music speak for itself beautifully. I suspect it was this movement that wedded me in particular to the performance. Ditto the 'big tune' in the last movement

I'll be interested to see what others make of the performance and recording!

I'm curious that both the Rachmaninov and Chopin are in G minor - can cello players comment on whether this key is a particularly sweet one on the instrument, or is it just coincidence?

[Pianorak]

. . . the recording balance favours the piano over-much, as if the piano had been between the microphone and the cellist, it sounds rather like a sonata for piano with cello. . .

Hehehe! Interesting - same problem with the two recordings I have! Looks as if poor old Rachmaninov is to blame for not getting the balance right.

[verismissimo]

I have Eileen Croxford with David Parkhouse on an ancient Saga LP. Lovely playing, but plenty of snap, crackle and pop from the surface. NLA now, of course. Time for something new, I think.

[ostuni]

I'm with Cali in not enjoying over-emoted performances of this piece. Earlier this year, when the Brahms Emi Cello Sonata came up for discussion here, I was inspired to do a trawl through a dozen or so recordings on Spotify & Qobuz, and found most of the big-name cellists similarly over-emotive in that sonata's opening: the version I found most satisfying (not just in that opening) was Tanja Tetzlaff & Gunilla Süssmann. I'd only listened to Tetzlaff before in the (very fine) quartet led by her brother - but I was very impressed by her Brahms.

And I'm glad to see that the duo has also recorded the Rachmaninov. So far I've only had the briefest dip into a number of streamed recordings, but again TT seems to do it for me: warmly recommended to others who favour a leaner approach.

[Barbirollians]

Her career was of course terribly short but one might have thought this piece would have appealed to du Pre but I do not recall reading anywhere that she played it .

[Beef Oven!]

I suppose my only objective reservation would be that the recording balance favours the piano over-much, as if the piano had been between the microphone and the cellist, it sounds rather like a sonata for piano with cello. Personally, I don't mind that, being a pianophile

The idea of a Rachmaninov piano sonata with cello appeals to me very much.

[Barbirollians]

I am amazed to find I don't own a CD recording of it . I know the piece and I think it was Harrell/Ashkenazy on cassette but I cannot have played it for donkeys' years .

[verismissimo]

Her career was of course terribly short but one might have thought this piece would have appealed to du Pre but I do not recall reading anywhere that she played it .

And no Fournier, it seems.

[visualnickmos]

I am amazed to find I don't own a CD recording of it . I know the piece and I think it was Harrell/Ashkenazy on cassette but I cannot have played it for donkeys' years .

This I have on a Double-Decca set of "Russian cello sonatas" - rather good, it is, too....

[ahinton]

The idea of a Rachmaninov piano sonata with cello appeals to me very much.

It's not entirely unappealing to me either but that's not what that lovely piece is unless it's played and/or recorded as such! Same goes for the Chopin cello sonata.

[Alison]

Yet another fine work for BAL. Lots of excellent repertoire has been mopped up in recent weeks.