Frank Peter Zimmermann; Heinrich Schiff - Duos for Violin and Cello

Information

Composer: Arthur Honegger; Bohuslav Martinů; Johann Sebastian Bach; Matthias Pintscher; Maurice Ravel

• (01-03) Honegger - Sonatine VI for Violin and Cello in E minor
• (04-05) Martinů - Duo for Violin and Cello No. 1, H. 157
• (06) Bach - Canon alla Duodecima in Contrapunto alla Quinta
• (07) Pintscher - Study I for "Treatise on the Veil"
• (08) Bach - Canon in Hypodiapason (Canon alla Ottava)
• (09-12) Ravel - Sonata for Violin and Cello

Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin
Heinrich Schiff, cello

Date: 2006
Label: ECM

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Review

Is this the best violin-and-cello duo disc around?

Frank Peter Zimmermann and Heinrich Schiff have been a musical item for more than two decades and the fruits of their mutual understanding are audible from the outset of Honegger’s Sonatina, which opens a typically wide-ranging and challenging ECM programme. Both players have an instinctive feeling for line which serves Honegger’s robust polyphony well, lifting his melodies off the page. The same is true in Martinu’s First Duo, where a mysterious Preludium is succeeded by a lively, warm-hearted Rondo in which players catch the Czech tang through the overlay of French gloss.

They face fierce competition in the one true French item, Ravel’s Sonata. The reissued Juillet-Mørk (Decca, 12/96R) gives perhaps the most classically balanced account; Kennedy and Harrell (EMI, 5/00) provide a slower, more dramatic performance. Zimmermann and Schiff are by far the fleetest, coming in over a minute ahead of either rival. Perhaps a shade too quick in the Lent, in the faster movements their impulsion is irresistible.

Between these peaks of early-20th-century repertoire come two Bach canons from The Art of Fugue and a new commission from Matthias Pintscher (b1971). The Bach canons are delivered with consummate skill, as one expects, while Pintscher’s ethereal vision, inspired by Cy Twombly’s art, casts a wholly different light on their musicality. With state-of-the-art sound, is this the best violin-and-cello duo disc around? I think it might be.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.classical-music.com/review/honegger-martinu-bach-pintscher-ravel
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Oct06/Honegger_Martinu_ECM1912.htm
https://www.allmusic.com/album/frank-peter-zimmermann-and-heinrich-schiff-play-honegger-martinu-bach-pintscher-ravel-mw0001384450
https://www.amazon.com/Honegger-Martinu-Bach-Pintscher-Ravel/dp/B000GW8OTG

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Frank Peter Zimmermann (born 27 February 1965 in Duisburg) is a German violinist. He studied with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff, and Herman Krebbers. For EMI Classics Frank Peter Zimmermann recorded all major violin concertos, as well as many major works for solo violin and for violin and piano. From 2001 to 2015, Frank Peter Zimmermann plays a Stradivarius known as the Lady Inchiquin, from 1711, which once belonged to Fritz Kreisler. In January 2016 Zimmermann was loaned the 1727 "Général Dupont" Stradivarius, which had been owned by Arthur Grumiaux.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Peter_Zimmermann

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Heinrich Schiff (born 18 November 1951 – 23 December 2016) is an Austrian cellist and conductor. He studied cello with Tobias Kühne and André Navarra, and conducting with Hans Swarovsky. As a conductor, he was Artistic Director of the Northern Sinfonia (1990-96), the Copenhagen Philharmonic (1996-2000), and the Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur (1996-2001). As a soloist, his recordings won several prizes. Schiff plays the "Mara" Stradivarius (1711) and "Sleeping Beauty" (1739) made by Montagnana in Venice. Among his students are Rudi Spring, Gautier Capuçon, Richard Harwood and Natalie Clein.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Schiff

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