Beautifully recorded in SRF Studio, Zurich, June last year – with intimacy, a just balance between the instruments, and air around them – Antonio Meneses and Gérard Wyss give wonderful readings of Brahms’s two Cello Sonatas. Meneses cultivates a rich yet varied tone from his Goffriller, is very expressive, and equally virtuosic when required, while Wyss, working a lucidly-revealing Bösendorfer, is a true partner as well as issuing numerous insightful turns of phrase. This is penetrating and charismatic music-making, impassioned too (try Opus 99’s first movement) and pertinently dynamic, both Sonatas speaking volumes, so too the seven Lieder, transcribed by either Norbert Salter (1868-1935) or David Geringas (born 1946), each a perfect fit for the cello, Meneses lyricising with much depth of feeling, presumably Brahms’s piano parts are left alone, and certainly making for beguiling listening between the substantial Sonatas, first-movement exposition repeats observed. Avie AV2493.
Antonio Meneses & Gérard Wyss record Brahms’s Sonatas for Cello & Piano (Opuses 38 & 99) – and song transcriptions – for Avie.
