Schumann Cello

In his newest release, cellist Bion Tsang returns to Glasgow, Scotland for his second recording with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and conductor Scott Yoo. CANTABILE, available from Universal Music Group on digital platforms tomorrow, April 14, and on CD in May 2023, features two works by Tchaikovsky, Variations on a Rococo Theme (Op. 33) and Andante Cantabile (Op. 11), and Schumann's Cello Concerto, bookended by two renditions of Pablo Casals' "Song of the Birds."

In the first decade of his recording career, cellist Gautier Capuçon has demonstrated great versatility, playing as often as a chamber musician as he has appeared as a concerto soloist. His repertoire covers the standard cello works, though he frequently performs pieces that are less expected. Thus, on this 2014 release from Erato, Capuçon delivers a stirring performance of Franz Schubert's famous Arpeggione Sonata, which is regularly recorded by cellists, yet he fills the rest of the disc with pieces a bit off the beaten path, such as Robert Schumann's Five Pieces in Folk Style, Claude Debussy's Sonata for cello and piano, and Benjamin Britten's Sonata in C.

Six years after their acclaimed disc devoted to Mendelssohn's works for cello and piano, Christian Poltera and Ronald Brautigam now tackle the two cello sonatas by Johannes Brahms, two central works in the repertoire, unquestionably the most important since those by Beethoven. The First Cello Sonata was composed between 1862 and 1865 when Brahms was in his thirties. He seemed intent on showcasing the lyricism of an instrument that is often compared to the human voice.

Robert Schumann - Complete Works for Violoncello and Piano
Klaus Storck, Violoncello / Aya Ishihara, Piano
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 255 MB | Full Artwork: 101 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "audio.max" # 903 1544-6 | Country/Year: Germany 2009
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

"The years spent by Robert Schumann and his Clara in Dresden were a time of perfect happiness, and in 1849 the composer, like a teenager, presented his dearest with a Romanze pervaded by intense passion. An outstanding recording of Schumann’s complete works for violoncello and piano from this time transports us up to the couple’s seventh heaven. The Schumann specialist Aya Ishihara plays Clara’s role at a Steinway grand piano (1901), and her experienced duo partner Klaus Storck is heard as the emotionally profound cellist playing an Italian “Spiritus Sorsana” cello (made in 1730 in Cunei)…"