Bohuslav Martin?: 3 Cello Sonatas, 7 Arabesques

Opis

Bohuslav Martin?: 3 Cello Sonatas, 7 ArabesquesOpis:Product DescriptionThe mid-20th century has a tragic and many-faceted story to tell where musicians from Europe, both Jewish and non-Jewish, are concerned. So many were either blacklisted, dismissed from their positions and forced into exile or transported to the camps and simply eliminated. Some, like Martin, seemed unsettled wherever they were. He was blown hither and yon by events beyond his control but he managed to stay just one step ahead of the invaders, seeking a place where he and his wife could live well despite the war and where he could work freely. This peripatetic existence was not eased by his difficult, possibly autistic, personality but that did not prevent him from composing a vast and very successful amount of music in all genres, including an unusually large number of pieces for the cello. Some early sets of short pieces for cello and piano certainly helped him to gain an enormous confidence and facility in that combination so that, when he came to compose his three sonatas, all written for specific cellists, the music could be filled with technical, idiomatic brilliance. Seven Arabesques of 1931 display rhythmic quirkiness and repetition, an attractively dissonant colour and an entertaining individuality while generally adopting a straightforward ABA design. Melody, mechanical quasi-minimalist repetition, complicated syncopation, jazz and bravura theyre all here in generous helpings.

ReviewThey rate warmly, to be blunt. Wallfisch phrases with richness and York is a most attentive partner and they tend to avoid extremes of tempo and declamation, such as can prove somewhat wearying in other hands – Isserlis and Mustonen, for example. Taking a kind of Golden Mean works well in these sonatas yet when one listens to Starker and Firkušný one feels a deeper and more visceral, lively sense of music-making, and Starker's tonal qualities bring more core of the note leanness than Wallfisch's. The one movement in the recording that strikes me as somewhat fast is the opening of the Second Sonata, though Wallfisch and York manage to prove engaging interpreters and avoid any sense of syntactical gabble. Rather, they are astute with rubati where the Julietta motto theme is well brought out, but not needlessly paraded, and they prove correspondingly to relax in the central slow movement. In the Third Sonata the sprung rhythms are perhaps better realised by Firkušný and Starker whose interpretation of an initial Poco andante is more athletic than Wallfisch and York. This is certainly better though than the frenetic motoric approach of Isserlis and Mustonen. The slow movement is again beautifully textured but in the finale the music's sheer vitality is better conveyed by a slightly more pressing tempo. I will say that Wallfisch and York find the music's humour; not all duos manage that. Some discs leave it there, with just the sonatas, but Nimbus has added a welcome and under-recorded collection of Seven Arabesques composed in 1931. These are studies in rhythm, syncopation and character. The third is the most obviously dissonant, with lashings of colour, whilst the fourth is the most jazz-influenced and the fifth the most expressive. They are excellently played here. Recommendations? It's clear that Starker-Firkušný represents the most idiomatic approach and I have long harboured admiration for the famous Supraphon recording with Josef Chuchro and Josef Hála, though Chuchro is a more reserved performer than some others mentioned earlier. Wallfisch and York represent a warmly expressive view of the sonatas, commendable but perhaps lacking the last ounce in rhythmic brio. --Music Web International – Classical ReviewThere is lovely lyrical Adagio, and with the relative brevity of each movement there is plenty of inner contrast. The First Cello Sonata was composed under the shadow of the early months of World War II, and Martinů's bittersweet major/minor harmonic stresses are in evidence in the angular first movement butAutor:Raphael Wallfisch/John YorkNośnik:Audio CDPłyt:Język: Data wydania: 2021-02-05Waga: 0.20 gramWysokość: 0.4 cmSzerokość: 4.9 cmDługość: 5.6 cmUWAGA: Kupując produkt na tej aukcji zgadzasz się na wydłużony termin realizacji wysyłki (10-14 dni roboczych). Podany towar pochodzi z zagranicznego magazynu, stąd wydłużony czas realizacji który podany jest obok.