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Track Listings
| 1. Cello Sonata No 1 in E minor Op 38 [25'32] - Steven Isserlis/Stephen Hough |
| 2. Cello Sonata No 2 in F major Op 99 [25'34] - Steven Isserlis/Stephen Hough |
Product Description
Review
Deeply considered, immensely satisfying accounts. Isserlis and Hough make a formidable team GRAMOPHONE Isserlis and Hough are perfectly matched here, offering poetic, tender and generous spirited music-making. Both have a distinctive luminescence of tone, enabling them to place emphasis on beauty, intimacy and phrasing that really speaks --CLASSIC FM MAGAZINE
Product Description
Brahms : Sonates pour violoncelle et piano n°1 & 2 - Dvorak : Waldesruhe op.68 n°5, Rondo op.94 - Suk : Ballade op.3 n°1, Sérénade op.3 n°2 / Steven Isserlis, violoncelle - Stephen Hough, piano
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is a fantastic disc. It deserves all the critical acclaim it has received and was rightly chosen by Hyperion as one of their 30 "landmark titles" reissued to celebrate the label's 30th anniversary.
This disc includes two shorter pieces each by Dvorak and Suk which are very enjoyable, but the two Brahms Sonatas are the real meat of the programme. I don't always get on that well with Brahms, I must admit, but I have persevered with his chamber music and found much of it very rewarding. This is one of the best recordings I have come across. The two cello sonatas are very fine and often very beautiful works, but they do need exceptionally good playing for them to make sense to me and they get that here.
Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough are two of the very best musicians playing today and have made dozens of brilliant recordings between them. Together, they create something really special here with magnificent musicianship, a genuine love for the music and a deep understanding between them. Part of the key to the greatness of this recording is their subtlety and refusal to engage in histrionics. They certainly have plenty of welly when it is needed (the opening of the second Sonata sounds almost orchestral at times, for example) but they never beat you over the head with grandiloquent emotional gestures and just lay the music before you in the most beautiful and expressive way. In great performances by actors, restraint and inner power is often far more effective than a lot of roaring and gesticulating and the same is true here - it's exemplary playing, I think.
As always, Hyperion's recorded sound is excellent and beautifully balanced, and the notes by Steven Isserlis show his customary combination of insight and wit. It's a terrific disc all round and very warmly recommended.
This disc includes two shorter pieces each by Dvorak and Suk which are very enjoyable, but the two Brahms Sonatas are the real meat of the programme. I don't always get on that well with Brahms, I must admit, but I have persevered with his chamber music and found much of it very rewarding. This is one of the best recordings I have come across. The two cello sonatas are very fine and often very beautiful works, but they do need exceptionally good playing for them to make sense to me and they get that here.
Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough are two of the very best musicians playing today and have made dozens of brilliant recordings between them. Together, they create something really special here with magnificent musicianship, a genuine love for the music and a deep understanding between them. Part of the key to the greatness of this recording is their subtlety and refusal to engage in histrionics. They certainly have plenty of welly when it is needed (the opening of the second Sonata sounds almost orchestral at times, for example) but they never beat you over the head with grandiloquent emotional gestures and just lay the music before you in the most beautiful and expressive way. In great performances by actors, restraint and inner power is often far more effective than a lot of roaring and gesticulating and the same is true here - it's exemplary playing, I think.
As always, Hyperion's recorded sound is excellent and beautifully balanced, and the notes by Steven Isserlis show his customary combination of insight and wit. It's a terrific disc all round and very warmly recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars
2 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fantastic disc
24 April 2013
By Sid Nuncius
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
This is a fantastic disc. It deserves all the critical acclaim it has received and was rightly chosen by Hyperion as one of their 30 "landmark titles" reissued to celebrate the label's 30th anniversary.
This disc includes two shorter pieces each by Dvorak and Suk which are very enjoyable, but the two Brahms Sonatas are the real meat of the programme. I don't always get on that well with Brahms, I must admit, but I have persevered with his chamber music and found much of it very rewarding. This is one of the best recordings I have come across. The two cello sonatas are very fine and often very beautiful works, but they do need exceptionally good playing for them to make sense to me and they get that here.
Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough are two of the very best musicians playing today and have made dozens of brilliant recordings between them. Together, they create something really special here with magnificent musicianship, a genuine love for the music and a deep understanding between them. Part of the key to the greatness of this recording is their subtlety and refusal to engage in histrionics. They certainly have plenty of welly when it is needed (the opening of the second Sonata sounds almost orchestral at times, for example) but they never beat you over the head with grandiloquent emotional gestures and just lay the music before you in the most beautiful and expressive way. In great performances by actors, restraint and inner power is often far more effective than a lot of roaring and gesticulating and the same is true here - it's exemplary playing, I think.
As always, Hyperion's recorded sound is excellent and beautifully balanced, and the notes by Steven Isserlis show his customary combination of insight and wit. It's a terrific disc all round and very warmly recommended.
This disc includes two shorter pieces each by Dvorak and Suk which are very enjoyable, but the two Brahms Sonatas are the real meat of the programme. I don't always get on that well with Brahms, I must admit, but I have persevered with his chamber music and found much of it very rewarding. This is one of the best recordings I have come across. The two cello sonatas are very fine and often very beautiful works, but they do need exceptionally good playing for them to make sense to me and they get that here.
Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough are two of the very best musicians playing today and have made dozens of brilliant recordings between them. Together, they create something really special here with magnificent musicianship, a genuine love for the music and a deep understanding between them. Part of the key to the greatness of this recording is their subtlety and refusal to engage in histrionics. They certainly have plenty of welly when it is needed (the opening of the second Sonata sounds almost orchestral at times, for example) but they never beat you over the head with grandiloquent emotional gestures and just lay the music before you in the most beautiful and expressive way. In great performances by actors, restraint and inner power is often far more effective than a lot of roaring and gesticulating and the same is true here - it's exemplary playing, I think.
As always, Hyperion's recorded sound is excellent and beautifully balanced, and the notes by Steven Isserlis show his customary combination of insight and wit. It's a terrific disc all round and very warmly recommended.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Urbane and civilised, but perhaps underpowered in Brahms
16 Feb 2012
By D. M. Ohara
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
This is a straight re-issue of CDA 67529, recorded and first published in 2005 [not to be confused with an earlier recording of the sonatas made by Hough for Hyperion]. This disc also contains two pieces for cello and piano by Dvorak: Waldesruhe [Silent Woods], Op. 68/5, and Rondo in G minor, Op.94; and two more by his son-in-law, Joseph Suk: Ballade in D minor, and Serenade in A major, both from Op. 3. These attractive pieces run for over 22 minutes between them, almost as long as either of the sonatas, and thus make a substantial bonus.
Opinions about the sonatas will vary. My review of the original issue included this paragraph:
"But how about the Brahms? The approach here is full of Gallic charm and understatement: urbane, but somewhat wanting in German-romantic Sehnsucht and visceral excitement. I much prefer the approach of Janos Starker in these works, and the way he digs into the strings when required to produce a more varied tonal pallate. For those who prefer a more heart-on-sleeve approach to Brahms, these performances might seem just a bit too reticent. Nicely played certainly: but rather lacking in gutsiness. This is Brahms glimpsed by gaslight, filtered through lace curtains in a faded Spa on a damp November afternoon. The attractive fillers leave little to be desired."
Opinions about the sonatas will vary. My review of the original issue included this paragraph:
"But how about the Brahms? The approach here is full of Gallic charm and understatement: urbane, but somewhat wanting in German-romantic Sehnsucht and visceral excitement. I much prefer the approach of Janos Starker in these works, and the way he digs into the strings when required to produce a more varied tonal pallate. For those who prefer a more heart-on-sleeve approach to Brahms, these performances might seem just a bit too reticent. Nicely played certainly: but rather lacking in gutsiness. This is Brahms glimpsed by gaslight, filtered through lace curtains in a faded Spa on a damp November afternoon. The attractive fillers leave little to be desired."
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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