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Xavier Phillips, Francois-Frederic Guy - Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello & Piano (2015) 2CDs

Posted By: Designol
Xavier Phillips, Francois-Frederic Guy - Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello & Piano (2015) 2CDs

Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello & Piano (2015) 2CDs
Xavier Phillips (cello); François-Frédéric Guy (piano)

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 532 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 307 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Evidence Classics | # EVCD015 | Time: 02:11:52

Act III of François-Frédéric Guy's Beethoven Project. On the programme: Beethoven's complete music for cello and piano with cellist Xavier Phillips, recorded by Nicolas Bartholomée at the Arsenal in Metz. In 2008 Guy embarked on a major Beethoven project that has included recording and performing in concert all 32 Beethoven Sonatas and the 5 Piano Concertos. Guy is a dedicated chamber musician and he regularly performs Beethoven’s chamber music for strings and piano as well, with Tedi Papavrami and Xavier Phillips. As part of the Beethoven project, Guy has performed the complete cycle of 32 Sonatas in Washington, Paris, Monaco and recently at the Festival Berlioz in La Côte-Saint-André (August 2013). Born in Paris, Xavier Phillips started playing the cello at the age of 6. His encounter with Mstislav Rostropovitch proved especially fruitful since it marked the beginning of a long collaboration during which Xavier Phillips received the guidance and encouragement of the master cellist.

His eclectic and varied discography has been warmly welcomed by the critics. His last recording – dedicated to Dutilleux “Tout un monde lointain” – received tremendous reviews and was nominated three times for the Grammy Awards 2015. Xavier Phillips plays on a Matteo Gofriller cello from 1710.

Xavier Phillips, Francois-Frederic Guy - Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello & Piano (2015) 2CDs

This is the third instalment in François-Frédéric Guy’s traversal of Beethoven and the first to delve into the chamber music. He is well matched in intellect, musicianship and temperament by cellist Xavier Phillips as they journey from the ridiculous (the Variations on ‘See the Conqu’ring Hero Comes’, in which Guy dispatches the virtuoso piano part with complete aplomb, to delectable effect) to the sublime (the Op 102 Sonatas). The two sets of variations on themes from Mozart’s Magic Flute are a very different proposition from the ‘Conqu’ring Hero’ but just as persuasive, with the Op 66 set given a particularly sparkling reading.

Competition is of course thick on the ground, not least from Isserlis and Levin (playing a tremendously characterful McNulty fortepiano), which was an obvious choice for Record of the Month in February 2014. But Phillips and Guy deserve that accolade just as richly and their utterly different sound world is equally riveting.

From the same year as the ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen’ Variations come the two Op 5 Sonatas with which Beethoven embraced the genre of sonata for piano and cello for the first time. In the opening Adagio sostenuto of Op 5 No 1, Phillips and Guy conjure up the sense of a genre being formed before your very ears. Compelling too is their reactivity, Guy never stealing the limelight from Phillips, though it would be easy to do so, particularly in the first two sonatas, in which the piano’s role is more overtly brilliant. The First Sonata’s Rondo is a highlight, with a real one-in-a-bar swing, the minor touches given due prominence. By comparison, both Müller-Schott/Hewitt and Qin/Tiu sound too well behaved; Isserlis and Levin are also a degree steadier but they offset this with some fantastically imaginative keyboard colours. But when it comes to judging the final moments, with the gentle ‘dissolve’ into a meditative mood that is then boisterously cast aside, Guy and Phillips are unassailable. The finale of Op 5 No 2 also has a wonderful elasticity, combining mischievousness with ardent tenderness as Beethoven demands. We’re made acutely aware of the different air breathed in each sonata. Phillips imbues the opening of Op 69 with a confiding quality that is just right: Müller-Schott is a tad more tentative, though both have a songful beauty of tone in their upper registers. In the same work’sScherzo, incidentally, Guy chooses (like Hewitt) not to repeat the tied notes where Beethoven marks a change of fingering, a feature which both Levin and Tiu observe.

One of the finest aspects of this new set is a sense of absolute rightness about each of the tempi chosen. The slow movement of Op 69, for instance, possesses a natural songfulness alongside which Müller-Schott/Hewitt and Qin/Tiu sound somewhat effortful; this contrasts splendidly with an ebulliently quick finale, neither player ever sounding puffed. The C major Sonata, Op 102 No 1, is just as impressive: it unfolds with a sense of total inevitability, its frequently gnarly world view convincingly conveyed, while the brief Adagio has a prayerful intensity.

And if you want to sample the seamless responsiveness of this partnership, just listen to the opening of Op 102 No 2, with its quicksilver changes of mood, from gruff good humour to elegant yearning and then back again to a kind of tart playfulness. The development, in which Beethoven conducts outlandish experiments on the briefest of motifs, is again judged to a nicety – Phillips’s deep sforzato accents slicing through the texture without becoming aggressive.

There follows one of Beethoven’s great late slow movements. Phillips and Guy shape its arching, aching lines with great intensity. Isserlis and Levin are a tad faster and the cellist’s use of vibrato only as an expressive effect is very striking. The test point with this Adagio is the espressivo melody introduced by piano and then joined by cello. Too slow and it sags like perished elastic, but not in the hands of Phillips and Guy (disc 2, tr 7, 0'56"). But then turn to du Pré and Barenboim and you find something more miraculous still: at a recklessly spacious tempo they turn it into a profoundly moving prayer. The close of the movement, a Beethovenian question mark, is answered by a fugal finale which in this new version has wondrous airiness and energy without trenchancy. It’s a recording that brings this sublime music into your living room in the most natural manner possible, and I can’t wait for Vol 4 of the series. Terrific!

Review by Harriet Smith, Gramophone Magazine

RECORDING OF THE MONTH

This release comes with a ‘statement of intent’ from pianist François-Frédéric Guy. His Beethoven Project has already seen recordings of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas and concertos, so this is the opening to “the third act, devoted to the chamber music.”

This is a very fine set of performances. I don’t remember hearing any of these variations played with quite this sense of fun, and the glowing contrasts between the expressively sublime and the frenetically dramatic make this set a joy to hear. I make this point knowing there’s usually an air of dutiful trepidation when it comes to approaching great swathes of variations. Beethoven is Beethoven of course and you wouldn’t expect these to be dull, but quite often these sorts of pieces are designed to be nice to play as much as they are to make an impression on the concert stage. If this were a concert I certainly wouldn’t be complaining about the ticket price, and would probably leave a tip.

The sonatas are of course the real meat, and this chronological presentation is helpful in tracing Beethoven’s ‘emancipation of the cello’. The two Opus 5 sonatas are both transparently classical in concept as well as having their moments of compositional exploration. This duo has plenty of style and élan, effortlessly exchanging leading lines and attacking Beethoven’s sharp cornering with focused accuracy and an inexorable sense of flow.

Greater musical depths are plumbed on CD 2, with the mature Sonata Op. 69 written in the same period as the Op. 70 Piano Trios and not long after the Fourth Symphony. Taking on the significance of this music, cellist Xavier Phillips digs deep into his strings, emphasising the darker dramas while heightening lyrical contrasts in the Allegro non tanto first movement. Rhetorical gestures make a telling impact without overly disturbing the onward drive of the music, though the changes in character between registers and material make this into something more operatic, and certainly in the nature of something that transcends expectations from this instrumentation. One can’t help feeling Schubert must have known this piece well, and drew a great deal of inspiration from its colours and dramatic content. The sparky Scherzo with its off-beat rhythms is by no means a light intermezzo in this performance; the beautiful Adagio cantabile first section of the last movement is luminous, and the final Allegro vivace is perfectly paced for both excitement and an appreciation of brilliance from both composer and performers. This is the kind of recording that makes you wish the piece was even longer.

Extensive duration isn’t such a feature of the final two Sonatas Op.102, but as products of Beethoven’s late period these works push the genre further than before, blending poetic power with impulsive sounding impact and a similar kind of uncompromising quirkiness to the sort that makes works such as the Ninth Symphony so enduringly fascinating. 1815 predates Beethoven’s troubles with his “inflammatory fever” but not quite the death of his brother Carl and its attendant troubles for the composer. To me his involvement at the time with vocal music and programmatic works resonate through these sonatas, and with Phillips’ quiet subtlety of expression it is easy to hear the operatic elements in Op. 102 No. 1 and the declamatory ‘concerto’ character and troubled eloquence of Op. 102 No. 2.

There are quite a few more or less complete recordings of Beethoven’s output for cello and piano. Miklós Perényi and András Schiff are recommendable on ECM, as are Brendel & Son on Philips and Lawrence Lesser and HaeSun Paik on Bridge. Alfred Brendel’s lyrical touch at the piano is a particular joy in his Decca recording, though I find Xavier Phillips more characterful in his cello than Adrian Brendel. Lawrence Lesser is darkly soulful – expressive and dramatic but always sensitive to light and shade, and a tad stronger than pianist HaeSun Paik, though this might have something to do with the slightly more diffuse piano sound. In any case, this recording from Xavier Phillips and François-Frédéric Guy is one of the most admirable I know in this repertoire. The sound is nicely transparent and full of colour, especially in the detail of the marginally more forward cello sound.

Review by Dominy Clements, MusicWeb-International.com


Xavier Phillips, Francois-Frederic Guy - Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello & Piano (2015) 2CDs



Xavier Phillips (cello)
François-Frédéric Guy (piano)
rec. January 2015, l’Arsenal, Metz

Tracklist:

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Complete Works for Cello & Piano

CD1:

01. 12 Variations in G major (10:36)
on 'See, the conqu'ring Hero Comes' from Handel's Judas Maccabaeus

02. 7 Variations in E flat major (8:38)
on 'Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen' from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte

03. 12 Variations in F major (8:45)
on 'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen' from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte

Sonata for cello and piano No.1 in F major, Op.5 No.1
04. I. Adagio sostenuto - Allegro (15:49)
05. II. Rondo: Allegro vivace (6:03)

Sonata for cello and piano No.2 in G minor, Op.5 No.2
06. I. Adagio sostenuto e espressivo (17:29)
07. II. Rondo. Allegro. (7:56)


CD2:


Sonata for cello and piano No.3 in A major, Op.69
01. I. Allegro non tanto (11:46)
02. II. Scherzo: Allegro molto (4:55)
03. III. Adagio cantabile - Allegro vivace (7:30)

Sonata for cello and piano No.4 in C major, Op.102 No.1
04. I. Andante - Allegro vivace (6:46)
05. II. Adagio - Allegro vivace (6:28)

Sonata for cello and paino No.5 in D major, Op.102 No.2
06. I. Allegro con brio (6:12)
07. II. Adagio con moto sentimento d’affetto (8:49)
08. III. Allegro - Allegro fugato (4:11)


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Analyzed: Xavier Phillips, François-Frédéric Guy / Beethoven - Complete Works for Cello & Piano - CD1
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR15 -0.30 dB -21.32 dB 10:36 01-12 Variations in G major on 'See, the conqu'ring Hero Comes' from Handel's Judas Maccabaeus
DR14 -0.49 dB -21.74 dB 8:38 02-7 Variations in E flat major on 'Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen' from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte
DR16 -0.30 dB -21.47 dB 8:45 03-12 Variations in F major on 'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen' from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte
DR14 -0.30 dB -19.00 dB 15:49 04-Sonata for cello and piano No.1 in F major, Op.5 No.1 - I. Adagio sostenuto - Allegro
DR13 -0.75 dB -18.29 dB 6:03 05-Sonata for cello and piano No.1 in F major, Op.5 No.1 - II. Rondo: Allegro vivace
DR14 -0.30 dB -18.73 dB 17:29 06-Sonata for cello and piano No.2 in G minor, Op.5 No.2 - I. Adagio sostenuto e espressivo
DR15 -0.30 dB -19.66 dB 7:56 07-Sonata for cello and piano No.2 in G minor, Op.5 No.2 - II. Rondo. Allegro.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 7
Official DR value: DR15

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 555 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================


Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015

EAC extraction logfile from 4. September 2016, 22:28

Xavier Phillips, François-Frédéric Guy / Beethoven - Complete Works for Cello & Piano - CD2

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GU70N Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%


TOC of the extracted CD

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Range status and errors

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Filename C:\temp\Beethoven - Complete Works for Cello & Piano - Phillips, Guy\CD2\Beethoven - Complete Works for Cello & Piano - CD2.wav

Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 4.9 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC DE1CA109
Copy CRC DE1CA109
Copy OK

No errors occurred


AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [E5C3E246] (AR v2)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [88B63866] (AR v2)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [B2CD9707] (AR v2)
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==== Log checksum E0A8E8E3A837DF760FA8D1AEFB29DD4D3E6631B5764EC2DC83DAE050493638DA ====

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2017-07-06 03:49:48

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Xavier Phillips, François-Frédéric Guy / Beethoven - Complete Works for Cello & Piano - CD2
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR14 -0.30 dB -18.41 dB 11:46 01-Sonata for cello and piano No.3 in A major, Op.69 - I. Allegro non tanto
DR13 -0.30 dB -18.10 dB 4:55 02-Sonata for cello and piano No.3 in A major, Op.69 - II. Scherzo: Allegro molto
DR14 -0.30 dB -19.05 dB 7:30 03-Sonata for cello and piano No.3 in A major, Op.69 - III. Adagio cantabile - Allegro vivace
DR14 -0.30 dB -19.09 dB 6:46 04-Sonata for cello and piano No.4 in C major, Op.102 No.1 - I. Andante - Allegro vivace
DR15 -0.30 dB -20.24 dB 6:28 05-Sonata for cello and piano No.4 in C major, Op.102 No.1 - II. Adagio - Allegro vivace
DR14 -0.30 dB -18.26 dB 6:12 06-Sonata for cello and paino No.5 in D major, Op.102 No.2 - I. Allegro con brio
DR14 -6.95 dB -27.23 dB 8:49 07-Sonata for cello and paino No.5 in D major, Op.102 No.2 - II. Adagio con moto sentimento d’affetto
DR14 -0.30 dB -18.11 dB 4:11 08-Sonata for cello and paino No.5 in D major, Op.102 No.2 - III. Allegro - Allegro fugato
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 8
Official DR value: DR14

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Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 563 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

Xavier Phillips, Francois-Frederic Guy - Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello & Piano (2015) 2CDs

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