This highly recommendable CD has at
its heart excellent performances of
Mendelssohn’s two sonatas for cello
and piano. The other works he wrote
for the same combination of instruments
– the early ‘Variations concertantes’,
‘Assai tranquillo’ and the Opus 109
Lied ohne worte – are added. So too
are three transcriptions from the Opus
19a set of Liedern ohne Worte, made
by the great cellist and competent composer,
Alfred Piatti, who worked with Mendelssohn
in London and played the second cello
sonata with the composer in London in
1845. This CD should appeal to completists
and to those of us who simply love high
quality chamber music well performed
and well recorded.
The first of Mendelssohn’s
two sonatas begins with an allegro vivace
which works its sonata form out in a
wholly predictable (and wholly satisfying)
fashion; the interplay of the two instruments
forms a rich dialogue, the piano never
in danger of becoming a mere support
for the cello; in the andante which
follows that sense of dialogue continues,
though the cello sings with particular
lyricism and beauty in the foreground
of the movement’s central section; here
and elsewhere the sound of Antonio Menseses’
1730 cello, made in Naples by Alessandro
Gagliano, is particularly well captured
by the recording (Simon Fox-Gál,
as producer and engineer deserves a
name-check); Mendelssohn’s melodic invention
is particularly delightful in this movement
(which closes with the pianist getting
a chance to hog the limelight). The
finale (marked allegro assai) is both
playful and passionate, the writing
harmonically subtle and sometimes unexpected.
This first sonata has too often been
overshadowed by the second; it has genuine
merits and charms of its own.
Still, it is true that
in the second sonata we encounter music
of greater complexity and sweep. This
has every claim to a distinguished place
in the canon of the genre, a fitting
successor to Beethoven’s sonatas and
predecessor to Brahms’ two sonatas.
In this performance the main theme of
the first movement goes with an utterly
persuasive swing and the second movement
(marked allegretto scherzando) sounds
delightfully spontaneous. Indeed, these
performances as a whole are characterised
by that simultaneous air of spontaneity
and thorough preparation which is the
hallmark of the best recordings. The
adagio of this second sonata is one
of the most memorable movements in Mendelssohn’s
chamber music, inward looking music
of considerable pathos, imbued with
a sense of spirituality and faith. Meneses
is heard at something like his considerable
best here, and Gérard Wyss leaves
the listener in no doubt as to why he
is so much in demand as an accompanist
and chamber musician. Equally convincing
is their reading of the far more extrovert
finale, by turns delighted and angry.
None of the other music
rises to the heights (or emotional depths)
of these two sonatas. But all of it
has, at the very least, charm and melodic
beauty. And it is all played with conviction
and fluid grace. Meneses and Wyss clearly
have the utmost confidence in one another’s
playing and their musical partnership
has about it an audible joy which communicates
itself to the listener.
This deserves a place
alongside the best recordings of Mendelssohn’s
music for cello and piano. All lovers
of Mendelssohn, or devotees of chamber
music, will surely find a great deal
to enjoy here.
Glyn Pursglove
Antonio Meneses (cello), Gérard
Wyss (piano) 
