Beethoven's Cello Sonatas
Beethoven's Cello Sonatas
Gramophone Choice
Complete Works for Cello and Piano
Adrian Brendel (vc) Alfred Brendel (pf)
Philips 475 379-2PX2 (147’ · DDD) Buy from Amazon
The Brendels, father and son, give us Beethoven’s complete works for piano and cello. You’ll have to search long and hard to hear performances of a comparable warmth and humanity or joy in music-making. Sumptuously recorded and lavishly presented (including engaging family photographs), the sonatas are offered in a sequence that gives the listener an increased sense of Beethoven’s awe-inspiring scope and range.
Disc 1 juxtaposes early, middle and late sonatas with a joyous encore in the Variations on Mozart’s ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen’. Disc 2 gives us the Variations on ‘See the conqu’ring hero comes’ from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus, continues with the remaining two sonatas and ends with the other Magic Flute Variations, on ‘Bei Männern’.
Pianist and cellist are united by a rare unity of purpose and stylistic consistency, whether in strength and exuberance, an enriching sense of complexity or in other-worldly calm (often abruptly terminated). What eloquence they achieve in the opening Adagio of the Second Sonata, what musical energy in the following Allegro molto più tosto presto, instances where Beethoven’s volatility is always tempered by the Brendels’ seasoned musicianship.
In Op 102 No 2, Beethoven’s far-reaching and still bewildering utterance, there is a quiet strength and lucidity; time and again a direction such as allegro vivace is exactly that and not stretched, as in more urgently, even neurotically, propelled performances. Their glowing expressiveness at 10'57" in Sonata No 3 is ‘interior’ yet never at the expense of impetus, and Adrian Brendel’s ad libitum lead into the concluding Allegro is memorable – improvisatory and relaxed. Both players display rhythmic resilience in the final Rondo from Sonata No 1, and what open-hearted delight and joie de vivre there is in the sets of variations. The Brendels offer an invaluable addition to the recordings of these masterpieces.
