This JRI Recordings album featuring cellist Nancy Green and pianist Tannis Gibson could be entitled "Music on the Cusp." The cello sonatas of each of the three composers represented on the CD -- Dohnányi, Kodály, and Strauss -- are early compositions, coming before each of the composers hit their more familiar core repertoire. In the case of Dohnányi, much of his work was underappreciated during his time and is underperformed now. The densely romantic sonata could easily have been a collaborative effort between Brahms and ...
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This JRI Recordings album featuring cellist Nancy Green and pianist Tannis Gibson could be entitled "Music on the Cusp." The cello sonatas of each of the three composers represented on the CD -- Dohnányi, Kodály, and Strauss -- are early compositions, coming before each of the composers hit their more familiar core repertoire. In the case of Dohnányi, much of his work was underappreciated during his time and is underperformed now. The densely romantic sonata could easily have been a collaborative effort between Brahms and Mendelssohn. It is filled with sweeping melodies, lush accompaniments, and an energetic scherzo. By contrast, Kodály's Op. 4 Sonata is much more stark and serious, though not as much so as the more commonly known solo sonata of Op. 8. The Strauss sonata is another of somewhat anachronistic Romantic writing that seems quite unusual compared to the rest of his body of work. Green's performance of these three sonatas is quite solid and convincing. She possesses a real interpretive flair...
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