Bohuslav Martinů - Cello Sonatas (Steven Isserlis)

Information

Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

1. Cello Sonata No. 1, H. 277: 1. Poco allegro
2. Cello Sonata No. 1, H. 277: 2. Lento
3. Cello Sonata No. 1, H. 277: 3. Allegro con brio
4. Cello Sonata No. 2, H. 286: 1. Allegro
5. Cello Sonata No. 2, H. 286: 2. Largo
6. Cello Sonata No. 2, H. 286: 3. Allegro commodo
7. Cello Sonata No. 3, H. 340: 1. Poco andante
8. Cello Sonata No. 3, H. 340: 2. Andante
9. Cello Sonata No. 3, H. 340: 3. Allegro (ma non presto)

Steven Isserlis, cello
Peter Evans, piano
Date: 1988
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDH55185

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Review

Martinu wrote a fair quantity of music for cello, but these three sonatas are undoubtedly the finest. Just how fine the First and Third Sonatas are did not, I have to confess, strike me until I heard Steven Isserlis and Peter Evans's performances on this disc... [W]hat Isserlis and Evans achieve is, I feel, more profound; they show that each of these works is a continuous musical argument. Here the colours are prevailingly darker, the mood on the whole more urgent. Some will find interpretations less friendly, but the gains are considerable: there's greater rhythmic vitality here (an indispensible element in Martinü) and Isserlis's feeling for the grand sweep of Martinu's long lines gives the music a fundamental firmness that it often lacks in performance.

...Take the opening of the Third Sonata: Evans's opening chords are massive and sonorous at first, but the splendour quickly fades--enter Isserlis, cool and restrained, but growing in warmth and tone weight towards the first climax. From the entry of the cello onwards it's like watching a black and white picture that slowly but steadily acquires colour. The performances are full of subtleties like this... No doubts as to the recommendation here.

-- Gramophone [7/1989]

More reviews:

http://www.allmusic.com/album/release/martinu-cello-sonatas-mr0002094863

http://www.amazon.com/Martinu-Cello-Sonatas-Bohuslav/dp/B00030ERWO

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Bohuslav Martinů (December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. In the early 1930s he found his main font for compositional style, the neo-classical as developed by Stravinsky. With this, he expanded to become a prolific composer, who wrote almost 400 pieces, included 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He is compared with Prokofiev and Bartók in his innovative incorporation of Central European ethnomusicology into his music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohuslav_Martin%C5%AF

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Steven Isserlis (born 19 December 1958, London) is a British cellist. He is distinguished for his diverse repertoire, distinctive sound deployed with his use of gut strings and command of phrasing. Isserlis is a staunch advocate of lesser-known composers and of greater access to music for younger audiences. He plays the De Munck Stradivarius, a Montagnana cello from 1740 and a Guadagnini cello of 1745.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Isserlis

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