Sunday 14 December 2008

214. Ludwig van Beethoven - Cello Sonatas, op. 102 (1815)














Recording

Title: Complete Music for Piano and Violoncello
Performers: Miklos Perenyi, Andras Schiff
Year: 2001-02
Length: 32 minutes

Review

These two last Cello sonatas are quite impressive pieces, but really the whole recording of the complete works for Cello and Piano is worth listening to. Of the five Cello Sonatas that Beethoven composed the third is probably the best but as a set op. 102 is really something impressive.

The performances are great as always here, the interplay between the instruments being quite impressive. Traditionally Cello sonatas were a showpiece for the Cello while the Piano worked as more of a continuo instrument, but with Beethoven the Piano obviously gets a more prominent place.

So you should really listen to this and moreover you should listen to all the pieces in this album, the other Cello sonatas and the quite fun variation on Mozart's Zauberflote songs are also pretty impressive and worthy of anyone's time.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

A cello sonata usually denotes a sonata written for cello and piano, though other instrumentations are used, such as solo cello. The most famous Romantic-era cellos sonatas are those written by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven. Some of the earliest cello sonatas were written in the 18th century by Francesco Geminiani and Antonio Vivaldi.

Rostropovitch and Richter play the first part of the last sonata:


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