Fiona Maddocks 

Beethoven: Complete works for violoncello and piano CD review – Queyras and Melnikov are an ideal match

The five sonatas spanning Beethoven’s life are the pick of this sparkling set, writes Fiona Maddocks
  
  

 Jean-Guihen Queyras
Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras. Photograph: PR

The Canadian-born French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras is best known as a member, with Tabea Zimmermann and friends, of the Arcanto Quartet, but his career as an elegant soloist of Gallic poise and intensity is blossoming. His partnership with the Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov is an ideal match: both are sensitive, responsive chamber musicians, alert to colour and detail, never excessive. The three sets of cello-piano variations, on two Mozart arias and Handel’s See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes! (Judas Maccabaeus), are sparkling but perhaps more fun for players than listener. The plums here are the five sonatas, growing in majesty and complexity and spanning the composer’s life from the early Op 5 No 1 to Op 102 No 2, in all its late glory.

 

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