Ligeti, Hindemith, Sessions, Medering
Published:
COMPOSERS: Hindemith,Ligeti,Medering,Sessions
LABELS: Channel
ALBUM TITLE: Collection: Pieter Wispelwey
WORKS: Sonata; Requiem for ‘cello alone’; Sonata; Six Pieces; La belle dame sans merci
PERFORMER: Pieter Wispelwey (cello)
CATALOGUE NO: CCS 7495 DDD
Wispelwey is best known for his Baroque playing, but the purity of his approach is perfectly suited to this introspective repertoire. The revelation is Ligeti’s glorious two-movement Sonata, written before he left Hungary, which Wispelwey plays with impressive facility and panache. Sculthorpe’s Requiem draws its inspiration from plainsong and maintains a wonderful sense of space and stillness. In contrast, the remaining works come across as bruisingly rhetorical. Helen Wallace
Authors
Helen Wallace is the artistic and executive director of Kings Place, a concert hall in King's Cross, London, and the former editor of BBC Music Magazine and The Strad Magazine.