Cello Sonatas

"This is a highly desirable disc on almost every level, with very fine performances and a state of the art recording. At over 82 minutes I think this is the longest single CD I have ever come across, so there are no complaints with regard to value for money. This is a recording full of genuinely passionate and remarkably immediate playing, including some stamping of feet, for instance at 1:11 into the Allegro passionato third movement of Op.99. My personal opinion is that this is now the standard against which other recordings, beloved old classics such as Jaqueline du Pré and Rostropovich aside, will now be judged."
(MusicWeb July 2010)

"Torleif Thedéen and Roland Pöntinen's performances here are on a grand scale, with opulent tone highlighted by a splendid recording...There's refinement and delicacy aplenty, too" (Gramophone)

Pöntinen and Thedéen perform Brahms' two Cello Sonatas as well as a version for cello of Brahm's Violin Sonata in G major Op.78. For a long time it was considered to be the composer's own arrangement, but it is now known to have been made in 1879 by Paul Klengel, an acquaintance of Brahms' and brother of the famous cellist Julius Klengel.

Torleif Thedéen and Roland Pöntinen made their first recording together almost 25 years ago and have continued to play together ever since, in recital and on disc. Their previous disc was an all-Schnittke programme, released to great acclaim: 'Thedéen's playing is wonderfully expressive - focused, clean, beautifully voiced…' wrote the reviewer in International Record Review. Naming the disc a 'benchmark recording', his colleague in BBC Music Magazine described the performers as a partnership 'in a class of its own'.