Malincolia: Works for Cello and Piano by Grieg and Sibelius
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Edvard Grieg, Jean Sibelius
Genre:
Chamber
Label: Profil
Magazine Review Date: 09/2015
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 67
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: PH15005

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Malinconia |
Jean Sibelius, Composer
David Geringas, Cello Ian Fountain, Piano Jean Sibelius, Composer |
(2) Elegiac Melodies, Movement: Last spring |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
David Geringas, Cello Edvard Grieg, Composer Ian Fountain, Piano |
Allegretto |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
David Geringas, Cello Edvard Grieg, Composer Ian Fountain, Piano |
Sonata for Cello and Piano |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
David Geringas, Cello Edvard Grieg, Composer Ian Fountain, Piano |
Intermezzo |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
David Geringas, Cello Edvard Grieg, Composer Ian Fountain, Piano |
Peer Gynt, Movement: Prelude (Morning) |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
David Geringas, Cello Edvard Grieg, Composer Ian Fountain, Piano |
Peer Gynt, Movement: Anitra's Dance |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
David Geringas, Cello Edvard Grieg, Composer Ian Fountain, Piano |
Peer Gynt, Movement: Solvejg's Song |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
David Geringas, Cello Edvard Grieg, Composer Ian Fountain, Piano |
Valse triste |
Jean Sibelius, Composer
David Geringas, Cello Ian Fountain, Piano Jean Sibelius, Composer |
Author: Mike Ashman
Geringas is closer to the idiom of the two Sibelius pieces, the cello part of Malinconia sounding more than usual like an offcut from one of the symphonies. He revels in its difficulties and coldness more than his pianist. In the shorter Griegs both men give more complete pictures of the music than in the Sonata, although the cellist’s suggestive rubato makes Anitra a better dancer than his partner’s portrait of her does. The Allegretto transcription of the Op 45 Violin Sonata goes especially well and Geringas nicely points the sorrow in his own transcription of ‘Solveig’s Song’. (Profil should remind their note-writer that Peer Gynt’s ‘Morning Mood’ is a picture of Saharan, not Nordic nature.)
There have been now three new recordings of the Grieg Sonata in the last three months, two of them with accompanying cuadrilla of the lesser cello pieces. This is certainly another handy round-up of that music but the performances, although technically fluent, lack the last degree of identification with the composer’s colours and style found, for example, in the Brantelid/Hadland BIS collection reviewed last May.
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