Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Beethoven: Complete Works for Violoncello and Piano (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Beethoven: Complete Works for Violoncello and Piano (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:18:41 minutes | 2,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

There are curiously few complete cycles of Beethoven’s five sonatas for cello and piano, given that the five, unlike the violin sonatas, were almost equally distributed among the composer’s early, middle, and late periods, and that each one was in its way a formally daring work. The last two sonatas in particular, with their mysteriously lyrical third relations and compact finales, fugal in the case of the Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102/2, might be regarded as having inaugurated Beethoven’s late period. Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and pianist Alexander Melnikov (here playing a modern piano unlike on the trio recording the pair made with violinist Isabelle Faust) have an efficient, quick, tough style that beautifully fits these late sonatas. They do well in the two sonatas of Op. 5, not trying to impose an artificial shape on what must have been at the time shockingly long opening movements. The Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69, might want a bit more broad middle-period sweep and lyricism, but you get several bonuses here: a trio of variations for cello and piano from the years around 1800 that are almost never played, and uncannily direct sound from Harmonia Mundi, working in Berlin’s Teldex Studios. A worthy Beethoven cello set in every way.

Tracklist:

1-01. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Variations in F Major, Op. 66 on Mozart’s “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” (Die Zauberflöte) (09:54)
1-02. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Sonata No. 1 in F Major, Op. 5, No. 1 – I. Adagio sostenuto – Allegro (15:45)
1-03. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Sonata No. 1 in F Major, Op. 5, No. 1 – II. Rondo. Allegro vivace (06:43)
1-04. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Sonata No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 5, No. 2 – I. Adagio sostenuto ed espressivo – Allegro molto più tosto presto (18:16)
1-05. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Sonata No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 5, No. 2 – II. Rondo. Allegro (08:13)
1-06. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Variations in G Major, WoO. 45 on Handel’s “See, the Conqu’ring Hero comes” (Judas Maccabeus) (12:09)
2-01. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69 – I. Allegro ma non tanto (12:13)
2-02. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69 – II. Scherzo. Allegro molto (05:08)
2-03. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69 – III. Adagio cantabile – Allegro vivace (08:09)
2-04. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Variations in E flat major, WoO. 46 on Mozart’s “Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen” (Die Zauberflöte) (08:58)
2-05. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Sonata No. 4 in C Major, Op. 102, No. 1 – I. Andante – Allegro vivace (07:27)
2-06. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Sonata No. 4 in C Major, Op. 102, No. 1 – II. Adagio – Tempo d’andante – Allegro vivace (07:09)
2-07. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Sonata No. 5 in D Major, Op. 102, No. 2 – I. Allegro con brio (06:23)
2-08. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Sonata No. 5 in D Major, Op. 102, No. 2 – II. Adagio con molto sentimento d’affetto – Attacca (07:31)
2-09. Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov – Sonata No. 5 in D Major, Op. 102, No. 2 – III. Allegro – Allegro fugato (04:37)

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