Dialogo
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Sonata No 2 in F major for Cello and Piano, Op 99 (1886) [26:42]
György LIGETI (1923-2006)
Sonata for Solo Cello (1948/1953) [8:03]
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Sonata in D minor for Cello and Piano, Op 40 (1934) [27:38]
John-Henry Crawford (cello)
Victor Santiago Asuncion (piano)
rec. 23-25 August 2019, Abeshouse Productions, New York
ORCHID CLASSICS ORC100166 [62:27]
The debut album of cellist John-Henry Crawford is indeed an auspicious start to his career on record. The 28 year-old cellist was born into a musical family in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he began learning the cello at a very young age. At age 15 he was accepted by the Curtis Institute of Music and went on to complete his master’s degree at Juilliard. He performs on a 200 year-old cello, whose provenance is unknown, that his grandfather smuggled out of Austria to evade Kristallnacht in 1938. Based on this recording, the cello has an absolutely gorgeous tone.
The disc’s title, Dialogo, refers not only to the opening movement of the Ligeti Cello Sonata, which is marked as such, but also, as Crawford explains in an introductory note in the CD booklet, to the programme’s exploration of “several different modes of concept that is vital to the fabric of our lives, our relationships, and even the progress of society as a whole—dialogue.” In addition, there is genuine dialogue between Crawford and his pianist partner, Victor Santiago Asuncion, in the Brahms and Shostakovich sonatas.
There have been many recordings of this music, as all are in the standard repertoire, but none of which I am aware with the identical programme. It is no overstatement to say that Crawford/Asuncion are equal to the best of their predecessors. The second of Brahms’s two cello sonatas is a glorious work in four movements, which he composed towards the end of his career. The cello has both wonderful singing lines and virtuosic tempestuous passages, and the piano part is fully equal to that of the cello. I compared this new account with those of two illustrious predecessors, Rostropovich/Serkin (DG) and Ma/Ax (Sony). After careful listening to all three performances, I can judge that Crawford/Asuncion contain the best of both. Rostropovich/Serkin is monumental and majestic with tempos at times more deliberate and at others quicker, while Ma/Ax’s approach is lighter with generally faster tempos and recorded a bit more distantly. Crawford/Asuncion with vibrantly close recorded sound favours tempos for the most part similar to Ma/Ax, but with a big, warm cello tone and plenty of presence in the piano part. It would be invidious to state a preference for any one of these over the other, but Crawford/Asuncion definitely hold their own in this company. One noticeable difference is in the second movement, marked Adagio affettuoso. Both Rostropovich/Serkin and Ma/Ax take over eight minutes, whereas Crawford/Asuncion manage this in just over six. It could be argued that the earlier accounts are more in keeping with adagio, while the new one flows well and brings out the songfulness in the music at closer to an andante. They are not the only duo to play this movement at a faster tempo; Isserlis/Hough (Hyperion), among others, also adopt the quicker speed. A highlight of the sonata for me is the Trio of the third movement with its soaring cello line before the piano explodes on the return to the first subject. Crawford/Asuncion capture this as well as I have ever heard it. Both they and Ma/Ax take the finale a bit more slowly than Rostropovich/Serkin, but also emphasize a gentleness and litheness of this music particularly well. Crawford/Asuncion are beautifully lyrical and mellow, but do not shortchange the dynamic variety in the movement. Their accelerando at the end is not as extreme as Ma/Ax’s.
In some ways the Ligeti is the heart of the programme, both literally and figuratively. This sonata gives Crawford centre stage and he provides the most compelling account of the work I have heard. I compared his performance with the one by David Geringas in Teldec’s Ligeti Project and one I had reviewed earlier here by Jakob Koranyi on a Caprice disc that also contains Brahms’s First Cello Sonata and the one by Benjamin Britten (review). I praised the latter disc and preferred Koranyi to Geringas, as good as that is. Crawford has now raised the bar even higher! His performance accomplishes all the intensity of Geringas and the warmth of Koranyi. Right from the get-go the dark, deep sound of his cello is captivating and Crawford brings out the sadness of the music so well. For me, this Dialogo movement anticipates the laments that feature in the composer’s later works. Contrasting this, the second movement, titled Capriccio, with its alternation of pizzicato and legato phrases is tremendously exciting and so clearly and closely recorded that it sounds like the cello is in the listener’s room. Ligeti’s Sonata, since the 1990s has deservedly become part of the standard repertoire for cello recitalists, as its original reception was poor largely due to Soviet censorship. Hearing it today it is difficult to see why it was ever censored.
Shostakovich’s sole Sonata for Cello and Piano has also received its share of excellent recordings and is one of the composer’s most memorable chamber works. Although it is young man’s music, it was composed during a painful episode in Shostakovich’s personal life. The composer had had an affair with a translator, which caused a temporary separation from his wife Nina before reuniting with her in 1935. There is a strain of melancholy in the otherwise companionable piece. Formally, the sonata owes something to Beethoven in the concision of its Classical form. Its four movements are a sonata-form allegro, scherzo, largo and rondo. The second theme in the first movement has a lyricism that makes it hard to dislodge from one’s head after hearing it for the first time. Crawford/Asuncion play this theme with a touch of rubato that adds character, but is in no way detrimental to the form. Then they really take off in the repeated ostinato passages of the second movement and are fully engaged in the pyrotechnics with the cello glissandos in harmonics. The contrast of the bleak Largo could not be greater. It is interesting that in one of my favourite performances by Steven Isserlis and Olli Mustonen (BMG) the cellist approaches the dark and mysterious beginning with little vibrato, which I find very effective. Crawford uses some vibrato here that results in a less gloomy but still pensive atmosphere. Rostropovich with the composer at the piano in what must be an authoritative account displays his big tone with more vibrato than the others. Asuncion’s piano, though, is very stark with less metallic ping than Mustonen’s throughout the sonata. Crawford bursts forth in the finale and is more dramatic than Isserlis with palpable involvement by both cellist and pianist. One can hear and appreciate so much detail in each musician’s part and they express the sardonic nature of the music with the rasp of the cello and fluid piano runs. They do not slow down and then speed up at the end, as some do, keeping everything in tempo. In every way, this is a terrific performance of a remarkable work.
I have listened to this CD numerous times and continue to be very impressed with the outstanding performances and sound. I am confident it will be on my short list for best recordings of the year and urge all lovers of cello music to hear it.
Leslie Wright
