Mendelssohn: Cello Sonatas

• MAISKY MISCHA / TIEMPO SERGIO
• MUSICA CLASICA
• INTERNATIONAL
• MUSIC

Amazon.co.uk Mendelssohn is sometimes airily dismissed as a little bit lightweight, but while his music tends not to plumb emotional depths it is usually very life enhancing. That is certainly the case here with his second cello sonata, whose ebullient first movement sets the mood brilliantly, bouncing away at a cracking pace with the Latvian cellist Mischa Maisky and Venezuelan pianist Sergio Tiempo playing like they have never had so much fun in their lives. It is completely infectious. Where things turn more serious in the Adagio, their sensitivity and attention to detail is wonderful. The first cello sonata lives in the shadow of its successor, but is convincingly presented here, and the Variations concertantes are given a totally effervescent performance. But lollipops accompany the after-dinner mints--the three beautiful Songs without Words gently pulling at the heart strings, the celebrated Auf Flügeln des Gesanges and three other Mendelssohn songs in Maisky's own arrangements. These little gems--so simple yet saying so much--are so much more than fillers in a disc that allows us to wallow in Maisky's warm tone and innate musicianship. --Keith Clarke Product description MAISKY MISCHA / TIEMPO SERGIO