Post Description

Harrell - Ashkenazy - Beethoven Sonatas for piano and cello 2CD

...Still with Beethoven, I share Joan Chissell's pleasure in the latest Decca set of the cello sonatas from Lynn Harrell and Vladimir Ashkenazy (417 628-IDH2; 0 417 628-2DH2, 11/87). They have the advantage of superb recording: they are sensibly balanced, neither instrument being too prominent nor too reticent. The acoustic is open but the sound is well focused. Artistically, their performances are in the first league—they are unfailingly sensitive and alert, phrasing is well thought-out and yet seemingly spontaneous. Lynn Harrell is less extreme in his use of dynamics than Yo-Yo Ma (CBS) but his phrasing is every bit as alive, and comparison between Ashkenazy and Emanuel Ax (Ma's partner) is not to the former's disadvantage. 

dank aan originele poster!