MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW Plain text for smartphones & printers


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

Support us financially by purchasing this disc from
Jacques OFFENBACH (1819-1880)
Cello Duets
Op. 49 Nos 1-6 [41:27]
Op. 51 Nos. 1-3 [36:06]
Op. 54 Nos. 1-3 [66:05]
Andrea Noferini and Giovanni Sollima (cellos)
rec. 23-25 October 2012, 21-23 February 2013, Bartók Studio, Bernareggio, Milan
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 94475 [77:47 + 66:05]

I imagine that composers have written teaching material for almost every conceivable instrument. This often takes the form of duets which the pupil and teacher can play together, and the best examples are usually written by practitioners of the instrument in question. Cellists are fortunate that Offenbach was not only an imaginative composer but was himself a virtuoso of the instrument. He wrote not only a number of solo works which made full use of such virtuosity but also sets of duets - from Op. 49 to Op. 54 - which together form a “Cours Méthodique de Duos pour Deux Violoncelles”. Op. 49 consists of six duets which are “très faciles” whereas Op. 54 are “très difficiles”. Op. 51 lie between the two and are described as “moyenne force”. Each Duo consists of several movements, usually three, with durations ranging from between one and five minutes for the Op. 49 set to nearly fourteen minutes for Op. 54.
 
This is music intended essentially for the use of the players, especially in the case of the earlier sets which the composer surely never expected to be played in public. It would be unreasonable to expect that too much as a listener from these pieces. The brief booklet note by Andrea Noferini rightly refers to them as “fun to play and a pleasure to listen to”. Pleasure is indeed the appropriate word for listening to all the music here even if only seldom was I aware of what Noferini calls “hypothetical hymns”, “mountain choruses”, “funeral processions” or “evocations of prayers”. For the player such comparisons may well be helpful but they are unlikely to obtrude on the listener’s consciousness.
 
The second disc contains the three most difficult Duos, and these certainly provoked astonishment from this listener at the players’ abilities. My only slight concern was that the faithful taking of the repeats in first movements can make them outstay their welcome. They are best listened to in an unhurried frame of mind where the player’s manifestly hard work increases the listener’s pleasure.
 
These are not the composer’s best or most interesting works but they do shed light on a significant aspect of his work. Any admirer of the composer will want to include them in their collections, as will cellists, and at the low price at which they are offered they are a potential source of much innocent pleasure to others too.  

John Sheppard