Catalogue

Summary:

In Schumann’s words, Mendelssohn was ‘the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most illuminating of composers, who sees more clearly than others through the contradictions of our time and is the first to reconcile them’. Though his music for cello and piano is not his best known, it is certainly some of the most dramatic and powerful for this combination. A mixture of Classical forms and Romantic outbursts defines this unique music, played here by one of the leading cellists of our time, the Brazilian virtuoso Antonio Meneses (repeating his extremely successful partnership with pianist Gérard Wyss) with energetic and, at the same time, intimate feeling. The album contains the complete works by Mendelssohn, and arrangements and transcriptions made by the Italian cellist and composer Alfredo Piatti, making it one of the most comprehensive compilations of this music available.

Tracklist:

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847)

1. Variations concertantes, Op. 17 (8:44)

2. Lied ohne Worte, Op. 19, No. 1 (2:42)

Sonata No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 45 (23:46)
3. I. Allegro vivace (11:24)
4. II. Andante (6:19)
5. III. Allegro assai (6:03)

6. Lied ohne Worte, Op. 19, No. 3 (2:31)

Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58 (24:07)
7. I. Allegro assai vivace (7:29)
8. II. Allegretto scherzando (5:26)
9. III. Adagio (4:35)
10. IV. Molto Allegro e vivace (6:37)

11. Albumblatt: Assai tranquillo (2:28)

12. Lied ohne Worte, Op. 109 (4:30)

13. Venetianisches Gondellied – Lied ohne Worte, Op. 19a, No. 6 (3:36)

Total duration: 72:45

Recorded 9 – 11 June 2007 at Potton Hall, Suffolk, England
Produced, engineered and edited by Simon Fox-Gál