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Review by Windsurfer May 17, 2006 (6 of 9 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics:  |
Who's that playing 'cello?, my wife demanded, no little excitement evident in her voice. Is it Rostropovitch? I had the radio on upstairs as we prepared for dinner. I said I didn't know since the piece was playing when I turned on the radio.
I had ordered this recording just the day before and when I told my wife about it she sighed and said I shouldn't purchase things just because they were on SACD. Especially, I shouldn't purchase the work of unknown artists just because it was on SACD.
Imagine if you will, the triumphant smile on my face and my wife's amazement when at the end of the piece on the radio, we discovered it was played by Anne Gastinel !!
She sounds just like Rostropovitch exclaimed my wife. Oh wow!
So on to this Schumann disc. For me it was a new piece of music. As Anne Gastinel plays it, it is a somewhat somber thing that I feel lacks excitement. My hearing it this spring played live in Symphony Hall in Boston with Yo Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony did not change that opinion.
In this recording, on the other hand, the cello sound ranges from handsomely powerful to extraordinarily lovely. The pieces accompanied by piano are beautifully done and if I have any complaint it is that the recording falls only a small bit behind the level of accomplishment of PentaTone. If PentaTone rates a 5 and Mercury Living Presence rates a 2.5, then this rates a 4.5. I am referring here to the multi-channel layer. It just lacks the refinement in the tuttis of a PentaTone. But since PentaTone doesn't have any recording of the Schumann Cello works and it doesn't appear that Channel has any plans to do these with Wispelwey, you better buy this one! I don't think you will ever regret it.
As I listen to this and especially to the works for Cello and Piano I am ever more appreciative of Ms Gastinel's accomplishment here. Her playing is truly lovely!
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