Reviews for Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Britten Sonatas
Review in The Strad December 2003
This is the business. Unless you are obsessed with an older generation of cellists, you will not find greater artistry anywhere; the realisations are simply complete, however they are assessed. The glowing recording is well balanced and Dejan Lazic's accompanimental work is repsonsive, alert and thoroughly idiomatic.
But it is on Pieter Wispelwey's fabulous achievement that one must concentrate. He evinces the utmost beauty of tone in the Shostokovich Sonata, paying remarkable attention to expressive detail: in particular the second subject of the first movement takes one breath away. He also shows exemplary aesthetic intelligence in the Allegro and the veiled tone of the Largo has about it a special lightness. To broach his technical accomplishments in the finale would be gratuitous.
In Prokofiev's op 119 Sonata the Dutchman once more floats ideas - such as the second subject of the Andante Grave - avoiding ponderousness but always imbuing his line with sensitivity. Moreover, he brings to bear a heady combination of grace, energy and good humour in the closing Allegro ma non troppo.
In the Britten sonata the performance reveals how this composer almost always had something arresting to say, notwithstanding the deployment of conventional tools. So perfect is the understanding of the Dialogo, so well executed are the shifts from hesitancy to explosive rhetoric, that the instrumental components are obfuscated and what is left is a sense of disembodied speech. Just as illustrative is the Marcia, which here presents as a series of disturbingly fussy manoeuvrings, the twitchings of an unquiet mind. Brilliant!