Alfred Schnittke Edition Vol.22 Epilogue Works For Cello And Piano

Torleif Thedéen & Roland Pöntinen - Schnittke: Epilogue - Works for Cello and Piano (2007) [Official Digital Download 24/44.1]

Torleif Thedéen & Roland Pöntinen - Schnittke: Epilogue - Works for Cello and Piano (2007)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44.1 kHz | Time - 76:06 minutes | 655 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Digital booklet

Alfred Schnittke’s use of the elegiac voice of the cello evokes Russian musical tradition and history. His works for the cello were to a large extent inspired by his friendship and close collaboration with the exceptional musicians Mstislav Rostropovich, Alexander Ivashkin and Natalia Gutman, to all of whom he dedicated works. Rostropovich has said about the composer: ‘As far as I am concerned, the most remarkable thing about Schnittke is his all-embracing, all-encompassing genius… he uses everything invented before him. Uses it as his palette, his colours. And it is all so organic: for example, diatonic music goes side by side with complex atonal polyphony.’
Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexandre Tharaud - Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata & Other Works for Cello and Piano (2006)

Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexandre Tharaud - Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata & Other Works for Cello and Piano (2006)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 56:20 | 240 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Harmonia Mundi | Catalog: 901930

One might be forgiven for initially thinking that this recital featuring works for cello and piano by Franz Schubert, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg was, well, a stunt. After all, aside from their birth in the city of Vienna, what do the three composers have in common? Schubert was the quintessential master of lyrical Austro-German romanticism, while Webern and Berg were two of the three most reviled masters of atonal Austro-German expressionism – the third, of course, was Arnold Schoenberg – and one might think they'd be an impossible coupling.
Paul Watkins, Huw Watkins - British Works for Cello and Piano, Volume 4 (2015)

Paul Watkins, Huw Watkins - British Works for Cello and Piano, Volume 4 (2015)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 67:35 | 235 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Chandos Records | Catalog: CHAN 10862

Brothers Paul and Huw Watkins British Works for Cello and Piano, a series remain[ing] by far the best recorded guides to this powerful and enjoyable repertoire according to BBC Music, reaches its fourth volume. Following Kenneth Leightons three-movement Partita, op. 35 comes Elisabeth Lutyens Constants, op. 110, whose four melodic and harmonic intervallic constants are used exclusively throughout the work. Alun Hoddinotts Sonata, op. 96/1 is notable for its clear, open textures, often of two-part counterpoint. Richard Rodney Bennetts four-movement Sonata ends the program.
Christian Poltera, Ronald Brautigam - Felix Mendelssohn: Works for Cello and Piano (2017)

Felix Mendelssohn: Works for Cello & Piano (2017)
Christian Poltéra (cello), Ronald Brautigam (piano)

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 259 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 142 Mb | Artwork included
Classical | Label: BIS | # BIS-SACD-2187 | 01:00:26

It is well known that Felix Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny was a highly talented musician, but fewer are familiar with the fact that there were two other musical siblings in the Mendelssohn family: Rebecka, a gifted singer, and Paul, a very competent amateur cellist. It is to Paul, a banker by profession, that we owe the existence of much of Felix’s music for the instrument, which in spite of Beethoven’s endeavours hadn’t yet become firmly established as a duo partner of the piano. Fitting comfortably on a single release, Mendelssohn’s works for cello and piano are here presented by Christian Poltera and Ronald Brautigam, who open with the Variations concertantes in D major, composed in 1829. Brautigam has recently released the composer’s Lieder ohne Worte, performing them on a copy of a piano by Pleyel from 1830, and plays the same instrument on the present disc. Meanwhile, Poltera has chosen to equip his 1711 Stradivarius cello with gut strings, and together the two musicians and their instruments create a sound which is both flexible, transparent and vigorous – ideal for Mendelssohn’s scores.
Anne Gastinel, Claire Desert, Liege PO, Louis Langree - Robert Schumann: Cello Concerto; Works for Cello and Piano (2001)

Robert Schumann: Cello Concerto; Works for Cello and Piano (2001)
Anne Gastinel, cello; Claire Désert, piano
Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège; Louis Langrée, conductor

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 252 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 149 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical | Label: Naive | # V4897 | Time: 00:59:24

A remarkably intimate recording of Schumann's Cello Concerto in A minor, this performance by Anne Gastinel and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, directed by Louis Langrée, may be a little too forward for the average listener's comfort. Direct Stream Digital engineering places Gastinel front and center – almost in one's living room – and the orchestra is not far behind. Such "living presence" may be an audiophile's delight, but others may find the proximity disconcerting, especially because Gastinel's bowing seems overly resinous up close. However, this is the only complaint worth making about this disc, for Gastinel is wonderfully expressive and the orchestra is extraordinarily balanced and clear in its timbres, no mean achievement in Schumann's problematic, thick orchestration. The remaining performances are less forwardly recorded and sound pleasant and natural, with a fresh spontaneity that feels more like a recital than a studio session.
Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexandre Tharaud - Debussy, Poulenc:  Works for Cello and Piano (2008)

Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexandre Tharaud - Debussy, Poulenc: Works for Cello and Piano (2008)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 62:47 | 444 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Harmonia Mundi | Catalog: HMC902012

Combining works by Debussy and Poulenc on an album may, to some, seem a bit ironic seeing as at one point, the latter railed against the music of the former. Poulenc was later to change his tune, though, and eventually became one of Debussy's most ardent admirers. The two were greatly responsible for a new direction in French music, which, ironically, required both of them to look to composers of the past for inspiration.
Daniel Müller-Schott, Jonathan Gilad - Mendelssohn: Works for Cello and Piano (2010)

Daniel Müller-Schott, Jonathan Gilad - Mendelssohn: Works for Cello and Piano (2010)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 01:12:20 | 343 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Orfeo | Catalog: 750101

Among Mendelssohn's considerable chamber music output, the works for cello and piano had a special place for the composer. Although he was not himself a cellist, his brother Paul was an accomplished amateur and Mendelssohn likely kept him in mind when composing the three larger-scale works. Following in the footsteps of Beethoven, Mendelssohn continued to move more toward an equal partnership between the two instruments. By the time he composed the D major Sonata in 1843, a true feeling of cello sonata as opposed to a sonata for piano and cello was achieved. This Orfeo album features cellist Daniel Müller-Schott and pianist Jonathan Gilad.
Michael Grebanier, Janet Guggenheim - Rachmaninov: Complete Works For Cello And Piano (1999)

Michael Grebanier, Janet Guggenheim - Rachmaninov: Complete Works For Cello And Piano (1999)
XLD | FLAC (tracks+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 62:35 | 263 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Naxos | Catalog: 8550987

A majority of well-known composers have written at least a few chamber compositions in their entire lifetime. The most famous would have to be Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and probably Prokofiev. Some, including Respighi and Vaughan Williams, are overlooked or even rejected in today's society. Whether it's because of lack of originality or excessive complexities, these sorts of compositions are always left in the dark. Take Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata, for instance. This 35-minute work doesn't receive the complete recognition it deserves. It's overshadowed by the composer's piano concertos and symphonies, all of which are respectfully first-rate works in their own right.
Francesco Dillon, Emanuele Torquati - Liszt: Complete Works for Cello and Piano (2011)

Francesco Dillon, Emanuele Torquati - Liszt: Complete Works for Cello and Piano (2011)
WEB | FLAC (tracks) - 214 MB | 56:27
Genre: Classical | Label: Brilliant Classics

Many of Liszt’s works were transcribed for other instruments; both by the composer himself and other musicians. These hauntingly beautiful pieces for cello and piano were originally written for piano solo or the voice. They are from the final period of his life and are the product of his old age and his quest for spirituality. Far from the virtuoso brilliance of his earlier works, their intense and romantic melodies express melancholy and desolation, the sparse textures and harmonic instability daringly looking forward to the twentieth century.
Amber Docters van Leeuwen, Taisiya Pushkar - Flavours: Music for cello and piano (2013)

Amber Docters van Leeuwen, Taisiya Pushkar - Flavours: Music for cello and piano (2013)
Claude Debussy - Alfred Schnittke - Ludwig van Beethoven - Eef van Breen

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 259 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 165 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical | Label: Brilliant Classics | # 9416 | Time: 01:10:32

This compilation provides a showcase of the many aspects of the cello and the range of emotions and characters that the instrument is able to convey. Opening the collection is Debussy’s technically demanding Sonata in D minor, a staple of the cello repertoire. The whimsical motives, repetitive tones and scales of this work give way to the ingenious combination of atonality and Romantic lyricism of Schnittke’s Sonata No.1, which is followed by Beethoven’s visionary Sonata No.5 in D, a homage to J.S. Bach. This is in turn succeeded by Van Breen’s Flavours, written in 2011. A playful piece that combines many styles, it is written with the five base flavours in mind.