With a list of impressive orchestral credentials as lengthy as cellist Susanne Beer, one might expect great things of standard repertoire works for cello and piano. At the very least, Beer's extensive background as an orchestral cellist would seem to all but guarantee a technically proficient and well-in tune performance. Imagine the shock, then, of hearing her shockingly weak performance of Stravinsky's Suite Italienne, one of many arrangements of "Pulcinella" the composer made. Intonation ranges from adequate to poor, and ...
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With a list of impressive orchestral credentials as lengthy as cellist Susanne Beer, one might expect great things of standard repertoire works for cello and piano. At the very least, Beer's extensive background as an orchestral cellist would seem to all but guarantee a technically proficient and well-in tune performance. Imagine the shock, then, of hearing her shockingly weak performance of Stravinsky's Suite Italienne, one of many arrangements of "Pulcinella" the composer made. Intonation ranges from adequate to poor, and sound quality is forced and brutal, and the balance between piano and cello is sub-par. The situation slightly improves with the Debussy sonata. Here, Beer's sound quality is much improved over the Stravinsky. Intonation is also closer to what might be expected, though far from flawless. Balance issues with the piano remain, however, and Beer's lower register is often buried. The dense piano scoring of Brahms' Second Cello Sonata makes these balance issues even more insurmountable....
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