Catalogue

Summary:

“Meneses is a true virtuoso…” – Edward Greenfield, Gramophone

“… Meneses and Wyss clearly have the utmost confidence in one another’s playing and their musical partnership has about it an audible joy which communicates itself to the listener. This deserves a place alongside the best recordings of Mendelssohn’s music for cello and piano. All lovers of Mendelssohn, or devotees of chamber music, will surely find a great deal to enjoy here.” – Glyn Pursglove, MusicWebInternational.com

“… the album is filled with some of the most joyous and effusive music in the repertoire… Wyss delivers each note with amazing elegance and clarity while always allowing the cello’s sound to shine through. Meneses’ playing is equally refined, with clear, soaring high notes and deep, punchy sound in the instrument’s lower register… Suitable as an introduction to these works or as an addition to a large collection, this album is sure to delight even the most discerning listener.” – Mike D Brownell, AllMusic.com

“… This release of Mendelssohn serves as an excellent companion piece to Meneses and Wyss’s warmly received disc of Schubert and Schumann (AV2112), and is similarly played with great enthusiasm and affection. Highly recommended.” – Ben Hogwood, Classical Source.com

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