The weightiest item in
this selection of Hungarian works for cello, or subsequently
arranged works for cello, is the Dohnányi sonata and it’s
been programmed towards the end of the disc, just before
the much different, fizzing Rózsa piece.
This gives the recital a slightly lop sided look, though
CD shuffling will accommodate that.
The
Dohnányi sonata has had a number of recordings, not least
by the first class Kliegel and Jandó on this same label
(Naxos 8.554468 - see
review)
but the most recent of which comes on Bridge 9264 (see
review)
where Marcy Rosen and Lydia Artymiw are
the
protagonists (the others works are the cello sonata by
Thuille and the two cello sonata by Tovey). The Naxos team
of Kosower and Oh take a rather more broadly sculpted and
extrovertly projected view of the outer movements of this
Brahmsian opus. Tonally they’re broader and rather more
communicative as well and their recording is brighter and
more immediate. This pays perhaps the most dividends in
the B section of the scherzo where they phrase with really
lovely refinement – with delicate simplicity, to the Bridge
pairing’s more obvious nobility of utterance. Similarly
there’s greater shading and colour in their shaping of
the slow movement. Kosower proves a most impressive exponent
of this late Romantic work - poetic, refined, with a wide
range of tone colours at his disposal. Jee-Won Oh is an
adept and virtuosic partner. Together they are a rhythmically
and tonally estimable duo.
The
Bartók is better known in its guise for violin – it was
dedicated to Szigeti and later transcribed for cello and
piano by the composer. The duo dig into the
fiss dance
of the second part with eventful dynamism, its devilish,
tussling animation being properly conveyed; they play the
so-called alternative ending. The Liszt receives a measured,
slightly austere reading; its monastic atmosphere is pleasantly
pervasive. Popper, scion of the Hungarian cello school
is represented by two of his pieces. The Mazurka was a
favourite of Casals’ and he recorded it on acoustic 78s
as indeed he did the Serenade, which was dashingly down
set by Feuermann as well – to name two of the giants. More
recently Maria Kliegel has recorded them adeptly. Dohnányi
turns up again in the shape of the evocatively shaped Ruralia
Hungarica, which is better known, in string incarnation,
in its version for the violin – as is also the case in
Kodály’s Adagio. Fine dynamics and a keening edge in this
latter performance. The fireworks of the Rósza, a tripartite
piece that rockets deliriously into life in its last section
ends a winning recital. The recording level is finely judged.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review by Michael Cookson
Mark Kosower
(cello) 
