Felix Mendelssohn - Works for Cello and Piano (Steven Isserlis; Melvyn Tan)

Information

Composer: Felix Mendelssohn

• (01) Variations concertantes, Op. 17
• (10) Cello Sonata No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 45
• (13) Assai tranquillo
• (14) Lied ohne Worte, Op. 109
• (15) Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58

Steven Isserlis, cello
Melvyn Tan, fortepiano

Date: 1994
Label: RCA

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Review

In her review of Lester's and Tomes's issue of Mendelssohn's complete works for cello and piano, JOC praised this duo for both their ''acute telepathy'' and for the ability to sound ''very much on the composer's own imaginative wavelength''. With the present period-instrument alternative, Isserlis and Tan offer comparably idiomatic, well-turned performances; but closer parity between cello and fortepiano helps to generate even greater expressive concentration. Moreover, Isserlis and Tan's predilection for fast tempos gives their performances an added freshness and vigour. Try, for example, the First Sonata in B flat major (which Mendelssohn wrote for his brother, Paul, in 1838), where the second movement's dual function as scherzo and slow movement is convincingly characterized, and the music's passionate outbursts sound arrestingly potent. The Variations concertantes, Op. 17, were also written for Paul Mendelssohn and here, too, Isserlis's and Tan's fine blend of subtlety and panache (enhanced by the fortepiano's relatively delicate timbre) affectingly conveys the music's nostalgic mood, and culminates powerfully in the work's conclusion. In the D major Second Sonata, Isserlis's and Tan's spontaneity and energy in the outer movements, skilfully controlled variety of timbre and touch in the scherzo, and dramatic opposition of chorale (piano) and recitative (cello) in the third movement—with its striking resolution in the piano's own recitative statement—sound immensely compelling.

The Assai tranquillo, written during a journey from Dusseldorf to Leipzig in 1835, bears a touching dedication from the composer to his friend, Julius Rietz. Here, as in the charming Song without words, Op. 109, sympathetic tonal balance between cello and fortepiano in the softly lit recording poignantly brings out the music's sentiment. Lester's and Tomes's version is warm and poetic but Isserlis and Tan effectively draw out the work's inconclusive ending to create a more telling analogy of the eternal nature of friendship.

Lester and Tomes offer excellent, sensitive performances of this repertoire, although the comparatively lush, reverberant recording, together with the tendency for the piano to dominate, occasionally sounds too robust. With Isserlis and Tan, better balance and crisper, more restrained recording helps vividly to evoke this music's romantic atmosphere.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****
https://www.amazon.com/Mendelssohn-Works-Cello-Piano-Complete/dp/B000003FP4

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Felix Mendelssohn (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. He was among the most popular composers of the Romantic era. Like Mozart, he was recognized early as a musical prodigy. Mendelssohn enjoyed success in Germany, where he revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and in his travels throughout Europe, particularly in Britain, where he visited ten times. His essentially conservative musical tastes, however, set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Mendelssohn

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Steven Isserlis (born 19 December 1958 in London) is a British cellist. At the age of 14, he moved to Scotland to study under the tutelage of Jane Cowan. From 1976 to 1978 he studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with Richard Kapuscinski. Isserlis is distinguished for his diverse repertoire, distinctive sound deployed with his use of gut strings and command of phrasing, and is a staunch advocate of lesser-known composers. Isserlis plays the De Munck Stradivarius, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. He also part-owns a Montagnana cello from 1740 and a Guadagnini cello of 1745.

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

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Melvyn Tan (Chinese: 陈万荣; born 13 October 1956) is a Singapore-born British classical pianist, noted for his study of historical performance practice. From a young age, he went to England to study, first at the Yehudi Menuhin School when he was twelve years old, later enrolling at the Royal College of Music. During his development as a pianist, Tan developed a passion for the fortepiano, which he has promoted throughout his career, and thereby changed other musicians' perceptions of this instrument. He has now returned mainly to the pianoforte and performs a wide ranging repertoire from Bach to Messiaen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvyn_Tan
https://www.melvyntan.com/

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