Natalie Clein (cello), Julius Drake (piano)Hyperion CDA 67829
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1915 was a remarkable year for the cello. Pablo Casals made his first recordings of solo Bach, and Max Reger in Germany and Zoltán Kodály in Hungary were, quite independently, at work on solo cello pieces. Kodály’s Sonata, Op. 8, turned out to be the greatest solo cello work since Bach, a distinction it still holds. It speaks with earthy, sometimes tragic, grandeur, yet it’s also ruminative. The cello writing is virtuosic, but virtuosity is never the actual point. And Kodály’s use of the technique of scordatura, tuning the instrument’s two bottom strings down a semitone, gives the piece a unique colour and depth of sonority. Natalie Clein’s impassioned, highly personal, reading – not quite as Hungarian in tang as the very best – is here coupled with a selection of smaller works for cello and piano.
