RAGING TORRENTS

Mendelssohn poured out his mostly impeccable musical thoughts from an early age, and even his earlyish death still left a respectable legacy of music. My thoughts on hearing his music are of the utmost enjoyment should the work be from that singular list powerful enough to dig into our souls: the Violin Concerto, Italian symphony, 'Fingal's Cave' Overture, 'Midsummer Night's Dream' Overture, and several others. But there's a lot of 'also rans'.

This CD of the complete works for cello and piano - two sonatas, Variations concertantes, and an isolated Song without Words – carries several raging torrents of notes [click for music] doing what Mendellsohn did so well in his politest mode of dramatic music. The American players are excellent international award-winning musicians giving of their considerable best, and with a good polish. Musically I respond to the Variations more easily than the Sonatas, perhaps because the construction is tighter and manifold development through conventional patterning is kept on the rein [click for music]. Which is also the case with the mellifluous Song, at just under five minutes and thereby richer in content and flow.

To listen to the aural illustrations in this review, you may need to download RealNetworks' realplayer G2.