Ilona Prunyi has already shown her sympathy with Sterndale Bennett's music on three Marco Polo discs of solo piano pieces (Vols. 2 and 3—6/94), and here she is joined in the Piano Sextet by five similarly gifted string players, though admittedly they get much less chance to shine. What struck me at once was the particularly beautiful recording quality provided by the Hungarian engineers. Every detail registers very clearly, yet there's a pleasantly natural warmth in the sound, and the acoustic provided by a hall in Budapest's Festetich Castle is perfect for an ensemble of this size.
Sterndale Bennett wrote his Piano Sextet at the age of 19, between the Third and Fourth Piano Concertos. It is a typically well-crafted composition, very much influenced by the composer's older friend Mendelssohn. The first movement, orthodox in structure, with some distinctive thematic ideas, makes a good impression, as does a slightly pert second movement Scherzo, but the Andante grazioso which follows is less distinguished, and the finale is frankly rather routine and commonplace. I can't imagine a more committed, livelier performance of the work than it receives from Prunyi and her colleagues.
The Sonata Duo (other composers might simply have called it a cello sonata) was written in 1952, when Sterndale Bennett was 36, and already thought to be declining in so far as inspired composition was concerned. It is in fact quite a likeable, fairly ingenious work, good enough to be taken up by British cellists. Marco Polo's notes tell us that Gyorgy Kertesz is principally known as a chamber-music performer, and this one can understand, for he is a thoughtful, musicianly player with good technique and tone, but rather lacking in strength and attack for solo work. The first movement comprises an expansive introduction, followed by a vigorous allegro which has some pleasingly lyrical passages. In the middle movement, initially marked minuetto caracteristique, I feel that Kertesz and Drafi play too quickly, and make insufficient contrast between the movement's three main episodes. A fairly animated Rondo brings the piece to a close. The recording is again outstanding.'