This recording of two great Romantic cello sonatas features the mercurial duo of cellist Alban Gerhardt and pianist
Steven Osborne, both musicians of dazzling technical and interpretative abilities. Gerhardt is known for his passionate
commitment to lesser-known nineteenth-century repertoire through his coruscating performances in Hyperion’s
Romantic Cello Concerto series (see below), and in this chamber disc he reaches an even higher level of thrilling
intensity.
There are relatively few nineteenth-century cello sonatas. Even fewer have managed steadfastly to maintain a place
in the current concert repertoire. Alkan’s splendid Sonata is a little-known work, but an immediately attractive one:
ambitious, original, and replete with good tunes. Chopin’s Op 65 Sonata is a dense, complex work which baffled his
contemporaries: it is revealed in this performance as a sophisticated example of two-part counterpoint, in which neither
player consistently holds the centre-stage, and in which the interchange of voices is ever unpredictable.
Both works were written for the great French cellist Auguste-Joseph Franchomme who gave their premieres, with the
composer at the piano in each case, in 1848 and 1857 respectively.