Cello Sonatas

Beethoven: Works for Cello and Piano

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello and Piano
Robin Michael, cello, Daniel Tong, fortepiano
Resonus Classics RES10254. 2CDs. 76’09+71’59

The key thing about this recording is that it uses period instruments – not always to be assumed in Beethoven recordings even in these more enlightened times. If your experience of the five cello Sonatas has so far been with a modern cello and piano, you are in for a treat, listening to the music as Beethoven might have heard it, at least in his head as far as the later Sonatas are concerned. The five sonatas range from Beethoven’s early years to the sad years of his hearing loss. Continue reading →

Dall’Abaco: Cello Sonatas

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco: Cello Sonatas
Elinor Frey (cello)
with Mauro Valli, Federica Bianchi & Giangiacomo Pinardi
Passacaille PAS1069. 62.27′

Dall abacos-cello-sonatas.jpg

 

Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco (1709 – 1805) was a cellist and composer with Italian descent. His early musical training was with his father, Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco, Kapellmeister to the Bavarian Court, who at the time of Giuseppe’s birth was exiled in Brussels during the War of the Spanish Succession. Giuseppe later travelled widely, working in Bonn, London, York, Paris, Verona, Venice, Vienna, and Munich. During his London visit in 1736-37, Charles Burney wrote that he “brought the violoncello into favour, and made us nice judges of that instrument”. Although his solo cellos pieces have been known for some time, this is the first recording of any of his 35 Cello Sonatas in their original form. Continue reading →