Mendelssohn: Music for Cello and Piano (Incs sonatas Nos 1 & 2)

"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."
(MusicWeb Dec 2007)

"ANTONIO MENESES is a cellist I haven't come across before, but the Brazilian-born, German-trained soloist is clearly an artist of great skill and insight. He has already recorded Bach's six solo cello suites and music by Schubert and Schumann, but selecting Mendelssohn as the sole composer for this one might seem limiting.

However - apart from the lightweight pieces here, which include a couple of Songs Without Words transcriptions by Alfredo Piatti, as well as the one Mendelssohn actually penned for cello and piano - the substance of the disc is the two sonatas.

These are substantial pieces of music, the first in three movements, with a song-like passage in the middle one and an attractively wistful opening to the finale.

The second is a four-movement piece, with a kind of gentle scherzo where the cello plays pizzicato to the piano's bitter-sweet tunes, and a strikingly original slow movement - and a piano part often calling for real virtuosity. Meneses and his partner, Gerard Wyss, play this music with unaffected charm and a degree of passion that is undoubtedly there to be found in the writing."
(Manchester Evening News)