1992 [DDD]

{CD}

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[Recorded in Utrecht, Holland in 1992]

Pieter Wispelwey is a cellist of no-holds-barred inclinations whose recordings of Britten have been highly praised in these pages (8/92), while his Bach (4/92) aroused mixed feelings. With Wispelwey's new disc, my feelings are more mixed about the music than about his playing of it. Kodaly's sprawling "Sonata" strikes me as an overheated and not particularly inventive effort which Wispelwey does no favours by having so little recourse to understatement. Fortunately the other, shorter works have more substance, and Wispelwey's bold style is not only more appropriate but positively welcome.
   The ill-translated note on George Crumb's Sonata (a student work) refers to its "exciting bow structure" (that is, arch forms) and Wispelwey certainly does marvels with both bow and fingers in colouring and animating the music's well-crafted lines.
   ... A striking disc, then, even if Kodaly tries your patience.