Alkan: Cello Sonata, Op. 47

“Rich pickings! Alkan and R Strauss Sonatas are given suitably grandiose performances. Bertrand and Amoyel complement each other superbly.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 *****

“Both performances from this outstanding partnership are out of the top drawer, fresh, spontaneous and beautifully recorded.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008

“Alkan's Sonata has been recorded several times before, yet it has remained obstinately in the wings of the cello repertoire. This new version must surely drag it centre-stage. It is a masterpiece: meaty, melodic and, as with most of Alkan's music, extremely demanding to play – Mendelssohn with balls. The Allegretto second movement with its sly, pungent harmonies and the mystical, almost impressionistic slow movement especially are further proof, if it were needed, of Alkan's genius.
Chopin's Cello Sonata, his final major work and the last published in his lifetime, has never lacked champions, despite the notorious problems of balance in the first movement. Here the musical line is focused and unambiguous, though the da capo repeat turns what is by far the longest movement (usually about 10 minutes) into one approaching 15, making it quite disproportionate to the scale of the other three.
However, it offers the chance to hear twice the heart-catching little motif at 2 mins 42 secs which has rarely been played so affectingly. Both performances from this outstanding partnership are out of the top drawer, fresh, spontaneous and beautifully recorded.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The Chopin sonata is everything that Alkan's isn't: dark, searching and puzzling; Alkan, on the other hand, produced an immediately accessible though technically demanding piece...Alban Gerhardt and Steven Osborne rise to the challenge with ease, giving us a real sense of Alkan's character while dispatching the more familiar Chopin with aplomb.” The Guardian, 12th October 2008

“As this disc so persuasively reveals, there are a number of Alkan's chamber works that are long overdue for serious consideration. His violin sonata, the Grand duo concertante, for instance, is so thoroughly original and masterly in invention that it should have acquired for itself a prominent place in the French violin sonata repertoire. The somewhat unconventional tonal layout of the bold and memorable first movement suggests, at times, the harmonic world of Berlioz, but perhaps more strikingly looks forward, both here and in the final movement, to the melodic, Gallic charm of the Fauré sonatas.
The Sonate de concert for cello and piano is perhaps Alkan's finest and most important contribution to chamber music. Although clearly rooted in the classical tradition, it shouts Alkan from every page. The second movement, in siciliano style, is a fine example of Alkan whimsy; in the slow movement, Alkan draws musical inspiration from his Jewish faith to create a serene and somewhat mystical oasis of calm before launching into the helter-skelter activity of the finale. The earlier Piano Trio of 1841 is perhaps even more classical in design and utterance, and is certainly more terse and economical in its use of material. However, it's no easy ride for the performers. The Scherzo is strangely prophetic of Tchaikovsky in places and is graced with a fiendishly difficult finale. The performances are quite superb. Klaas copes admirably with all the keyboard pyrotechnics thrown at him, and Lessing and Schwarz provide per- formances of dedication and great understanding.
Recording is full-bodied and close.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Ronald Smith exhibits an unflinching command of Alkan’s often complex idiom and his excellent string collaborators are violinist James Clark and cellist Moray Welsh. The 1992-4 recordings were made by Nimbus but are receiving their first-ever release” The Independent