Sonata

Cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Denes Várjon are known as instrumentalists for connoisseurs, delving deep into the structures of work and programming them in intelligent ways. You wouldn't pick Isserlis as a Chopin specialist, and Chopin wrote very little chamber music anyway. But he and Várjon deliver a gripping performance of the Chopin Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65, a notoriously troublesome work whose text is far from fixed. They play the first movement Maestoso, as it is marked in some sources, and they present a vision of the sonata as a work of great seriousness, complexity, and ambition.

The young Novosibirsk-born pianist Pavel Kolesnikov has made a splash in London not only by virtue of his technical facility – perhaps nobody on the scene today can manage a perfectly smooth surface at low volumes the way he can – but also with unusual programming. Some may find his programs perverse, but there is generally some method to them, and in cases like the present one they may be revelatory. Beethoven's sonatas are routinely presented in various kinds of groupings, but it is rare indeed that they are put down in the middle of groups of small pieces, many of them "WoO," or without opus number.

Even though EMI has reissued some interesting old recordings in its "encore" series, there are some that seem to have been brought out of storage a bit past their prime and that may be disappointing because of their weak audio reproduction. Cécile Ousset's flashy readings of Franz Liszt's Sonata in B minor, S. 178, and the Paganini Studies, S. 141, date from 1984, and as one might expect, they sound like early digital recordings in their lack of presence, chilly ambience, and shallow dimensions. Something of a rarity, Ousset's animated and energetic interpretations may rescue this CD for fans who have never heard her play Liszt before; or the budget price may at least make it acceptable for others.

Considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995) nevertheless left only a small body of recordings due to his perfectionism. Nor did he give live concerts often, frequently canceling them at the last minute for flimsy reasons. Still, his playing was prized for its clarity, directness, and unique interpretations.

The music of Mieczys?aw Weinberg continues to be issued, and continues to impress. Like his British counterpart, York Bowen, Weinberg was a composer trapped in time and place, and it is good that their very different musics are now coming to the fore with such regularity. One of the wonderful things about this disc, aside from the committed, intense playing of the instrumentalists, is the sound: crisp and clear, with only a very little reverb, which brings the sound of the instruments into sharp focus and makes the listener pay attention to the music.

This is the second AVIE recording by the powerful, Barcelona-based violin-piano duo of Kai Gleusteen and Catherine Ordronneau in Avie’s Crear Classics series, named for the spectacular studio space on the western coast of Scotland. Their debut recital of works by Janácek, Prokofiev and Shostakovich (AV 0023) was critically acclaimed and caught the attention of music aficionados worldwide. This release features three contrasting yet complimentary works from the second half of the 19th century.

Yevgeny Sudbin's inquiring mind, unflappable fingers, and huge heart mesh with extraordinary concentration and intensity, resulting in some of the most carefully thought-through, powerfully projected, and fastidiously executed Rachmaninov interpretations I've ever heard. A few general comments equally pertain to all of the selections. In Sudbin's hands, inner voices aren't gently coaxed from the massive, orchestrally inspired textures for ear-catching effect, but instead emerge as integral and active components.