Notes and Editorial Reviews
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Virtuoso and sensitive players who put themselves at the music's service
As one listens to this engaging recital, with its excellent sound, it's difficult to remember that only one work, Schumann's Op 102, was originally for cello and piano. Meneses negotiates the Arpeggione Sonata's dauntingly high tessitura with no sense of strain, and the other Schumann sets, designed respectively for horn, clarinet and viola, sound like idiomatic cello music. He's a true virtuoso, as the fast passages in the Arpeggione and the third of the Märchenbilder amply demonstrate, but one never feels that he's presenting himself. The
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impression is rather that he's inviting us into Schumann's or Schubert's inner world, urbanely drawing attention, by means of subtle emphasis or change of colour, to all the music's incidental beauties.
Gerard Wyss, as an experienced Lieder accompanist, has a similar eye for illustrative detail; his touch is unusually sensitive, with chords always beautifully balanced, and his left hand gives exceptional vitality to the bass-lines. Wyss's and Meneses's view of the Schubert isn't as starkly melancholic as Queyras's and Tharaud's on their fine recent recording (Harmonia Mundi, 12/06); their performance is warmer and more communicative. The finale's minor-key episode in Hungarian style bubbles with vitality, in contrast to the tense, agitated mood portrayed by Queyras and Tharaud. Similarly, all the Schumann pieces are performed in an outgoing, friendly way; I especially enjoyed the first of the Stücke im Volkston, progressing from a light, playful start to sweeping romantic gestures, and the last of the Märchenbilder, sweet and tender, with an almost Mahlerian sense of regret and loss.
– Duncan Druce, Gramophone [3/2007]
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Works on This Recording
1.
Adagio and Allegro for Cello and Piano in A flat major, Op. 70 by Robert Schumann
Performer:
Gérard Wyss (Piano),
Antonio Meneses (Cello)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1849; Germany
2.
Phantasiestücke (3) for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 73 by Robert Schumann
Performer:
Gérard Wyss (Piano),
Antonio Meneses (Cello)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1849; Germany
3.
Stücke (5) im Volkston for Cello and Piano, Op. 102 by Robert Schumann
Performer:
Antonio Meneses (Cello),
Gérard Wyss (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1849; Germany
4.
Märchenbilder for Viola and Piano, Op. 113 by Robert Schumann
Performer:
Antonio Meneses (Cello),
Gérard Wyss (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1851; Germany
Notes: Arrangers: Alfredo Piatti; Christian Bellisario.
5.
Sonata for Arpeggione in A minor, D 821 by Franz Schubert
Performer:
Antonio Meneses (Cello),
Gérard Wyss (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1824; Vienna, Austria
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