The sleeve tells us that having won the Los Angeles Young Musicians Foundation Competition two years before, Peter Wyrick made this recording in 1982, as an 18-year old student of Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School. He was plainly already a player of uncommon artistic and tonal refinement. But I think he would have been wiser to wait a little longer before venturing into the recording studios in music as subtly demanding as Faure's two late cello sonatas. Although understatement is preferable to exaggerated point-making in music of this kind, both performances struck me as rather too shy, or should I say unripe.
I'm sure that now, as assistant principal cellist of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, his bowing arm—and musical conviction—have strengthened. But in view of his slender tone four years ago, I'm surprised that a partner as experienced as Earl Wild sanctioned such consistently leisurely tempos—too slow for Wyrick to sustain with intensity. They are slower than the Durand edition's metronome markings in the G minor Sonata (none are supplied for the D minor work), and considerably slower than Igloi and Benson on CRD in all six movements. With their greater animation, this rival pair respond so much more generously to moments of climax in both sonatas—as, for instance, just before the reprise in both slow movements. Even in small details of accentuation and colour contrast, Igloi and Benson make the music more their own.
At the start of the D minor Sonata I feared that Earl Wild might dominate throughout. But I soon realized that the fault here was Faure's own scoring: the first subject was apparently borrowed from an unpublished symphony. For the most part—and especially in the more lyrical later work—Wild displays considerable tact in balance. The recording itself is dryish but clear. A very sensitively phrased Apres un reve reaffirms Wyrick's promise. But for anyone wanting the two sonatas here and now, I'm bound to say that the more characterful performances come from Igloi and Benson, whose record also includes the Sicilienne and the famous Elegie.'