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Label:
  Praga Digitals - http://www.pragadigitals.com/
Serial:
  PRD/DSD 250 245
Title:
  French Romantic Cello Sonatas - Michal Kanka
Description:
  César Franck: Sonata in A (trans. cello), Camille Saint-Saëns: Cello Sonata No. 1 in C minor Op. 32, Leon Boëllmann: Cello Sonata in A minor Op. 40

Michal Kanka (cello)
Ivan Klansky (piano)
Track listing:
 
Genre:
  Classical - Chamber
Content:
  Stereo/Multichannel
Media:
  Hybrid
Recording type:
  DSD
Recording info:
 

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Related titles: 2


 
Reviews: 1

Review by Beagle July 20, 2008 (7 of 9 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
MINI-REVIEW

SONICS
The sound is satisfying but perhaps a bit rich in the lower frequencies, which is fine for the violoncelle but surprising for the pianoforte. The soundstage is not unclear, but neither are the musicians' locations obvious. Kanka and Klansky* both appear to be positioned in-line in the centre of the stage: the cello is spread between the speakers, and the piano upper strings tend to fall to the left and the lower to the right. The miking is certainly not too close.

MUSICIANSHIP
Kanka plays with feeling -- and having seen him a number of times in person, I can easily imagine his mobile features awash with every possible emotion in its turn. Klansky is there when he is needed and provides the rhythmic impetus, but he never thrusts himself to the fore (nor does the genre require it).

MUSIC
The music is VERY ROMANTIC, but not very obviously French. The Saint-Saëns and Franck pieces have that 'Old Warhorse' presence which evokes in me at least the reaction of "Oh yeah, THAT piece...". I got this disc largely for the Boëlmann piece. Boëlmann is not well known, perhaps because of his early death; he wrote the Op. 40 Cello Sonata -- and then died, aged 35 (Saint-Saëns' piece was written at age 32, Franck's at twice that!). My wife finds the Boëlmann sonata "a bit overwrought", but it is my kind of romanticism: not sleep inducing. I have known the piece for decades from an MMG disc with Simca Heled and Jonathan Zak performing. Kanka takes the piece almost exactly as Heled did some 20 years ago (23:11 vs 23:12), so maybe Heled's recording has defined the piece.

*I can't help but thinking that the two names sound like a pair of Borscht-Belt comedians: romantic music does sometimes step over the sublime into the comical....

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Works: 3  

Leon Boëllmann - Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 40
César Franck - Violin Sonata in A major, FWV 8
Camille Saint-Saëns - Cello Sonata No. 1 in C minor, Op. 32