Complete Beethoven Edition, Vol. 8: Cello Sonatas
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Music CD Cover Performer: Mischa Maisky Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven Performer: Martha Argerich Edition: Music CD CD Release Date: 1997-11-25 Music Label: Deutsche Grammophon Soundtracks: Music CD 1
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Free Music Notes for Complete Beethoven Edition, Vol. 8: Cello Sonatas Album
Free Music Review: A spirited performance
Hit: 5 Stars
This is an uncommonly good recording, with the piano having a bright and unusual luminosity. The 'cello is equally well captured. Five plus stars to the engineers.
However, praise not quite so fulsome for the musical performance which is never short of spirit but in places lacks balance. Mischa Maisky is an accomplished 'cellist and performs well in this set but there are "adversarial" moments where the 'cello fails to prevail over superior forces. This partly is due to Martha Argerich's occasionally seeming to prefer an independent (rather than interdependent) direction. Of course, Beethoven's writing favours the piano in many places too which doesn't really help.
Where it exists, this may be an unconscious dominance. Sometimes pianists and/or recording engineers forget that the violoncello (apart from the adoption of the end spike) has remained unchanged since the sixteenth century whereas the size, scale and dynamics of the piano for which Beethoven and his contemporaries wrote are almost unrecognisably different from those of the modern instrument. The 'cello cannot be made to "blat" like the violin and so can have a hard time keeping up with a nine foot grand. Much sympathy is required here.
But on the whole, I like this duo and their interpretations. And I prefer the Mozart/Handel variations to most of the programming offered on other discs.