Cello Sonatas Nos.1, 2, etc : Poltera(Vc)Brautigam(Fp)(Hybrid)

It is well known that Felix Mendelssohns sister Fanny was a highly talented musician, but fewer are familiar with the fact that there were two other musical siblings in the Mendelssohn family: Rebecka, a gifted singer, and Paul, a very competent amateur cellist. It is to Paul, a banker by profession, that we owe the existence of much of Felixs music for the instrument, which in spite of Beethovens endeavours hadnt yet become firmly established as a duo partner of the piano. Fitting comfortably on a single release, Mendelssohns works for cello and piano are here presented by Christian Poltera and Ronald Brautigam, who open with the Variations concertantes in D major, composed in 1829. Brautigam has recently released the composers Lieder ohne Worte, performing them on a copy of a piano by Pleyel from 1830, and plays the same instrument on the present disc. Meanwhile, Poltera has chosen to equip his 1711 Stradivarius cello with gut strings, and together the two musicians and their instruments create a sound which is both flexible, transparent and vigorous ideal for Mendelssohns scores. The two substantial sonatas, composed in 1838 and 1843, are separated on the disc by a brief Albumblatt and a Romance sans paroles in D major, the only song without words that Mendelssohn wrote for two instruments rather than piano solo.