Brahms: Cello Sonatas (2005)

No matter how many recordings of Brahms' cello sonatas you have -- indeed, the more recordings you have, the better -- this recording by Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough deserves to be heard. Certainly, there have been great recordings of the works in the past -- the expressive Piatgorsky, the elegant Fournier, the burly Rostropovich, the list goes on and on -- but, equally certainly, Isserlis and Hough belong in that exalted company. Separately, Isserlis and Hough are formidable. Isserlis, a strong and soulful player with ... Read More

No matter how many recordings of Brahms' cello sonatas you have -- indeed, the more recordings you have, the better -- this recording by Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough deserves to be heard. Certainly, there have been great recordings of the works in the past -- the expressive Piatgorsky, the elegant Fournier, the burly Rostropovich, the list goes on and on -- but, equally certainly, Isserlis and Hough belong in that exalted company. Separately, Isserlis and Hough are formidable. Isserlis, a strong and soulful player with a rich lower register and a singing upper register, and Hough, a powerful virtuoso with a poetic sensibility, plus that rarest thing in a virtuoso: an accompanist's sensitivity to the subtleties of partnership. Together, they are as fine a pair of soloists as has ever recorded the works and the ensemble is seemingly telepathic. Isserlis and Hough's E minor Sonata is youthful yet still tragic, a precursor of the Fourth Symphony, while the F major Sonata is mature yet still heroic, a... Read Less