One of the world’s leading cellists, Antonio Meneses

Antonio Meneses, cello    Gérard Wyss, piano

Mendelssohn : Music For Cello and Piano

release date:  24 September 2007

In Schumann’s own words, Mendelssohn was 'the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most illuminating of composers, who sees more clearly than others through the contradictions of our time and is the first to reconcile them'. Though his music for cello and piano might not be the most important in his catalogue of works, it is certainly one of the most dramatic and powerful for this combination. A mixture of Classical forms and Romatinc outbursts defines this unique music, played here by one of the leading cellists of our time, the Brazilian virtuoso Antonio Meneses (repeating his extremely successful partnership with pianist Gérard Wyss) with energetic and, at the same time, intimate feeling. The album comprises all of the complete works by Mendelssohn and arrangements and transcriptions made by the 19^th Century Italian cellist and composer Alfredo Piatti. It is probably one of the most comprehensive discs in recent years of this music and surely one with the most qualified interpreters of present time.

One of the world’s leading cellists, Antonio Meneses, teams up once more with pianist Gérard Wyss (repeating he successful combination that led to a Gramophone Disc of the Month) for a comprehensive disc of Mendelssohn’s cello and piano works.

critical acclaim for Antonio Meneses

• “Meneses is a true virtuoso” – Gramophone

• “ I should (…) declare that this recording boasts some of the most beautiful cello playing I have heard in years” – BBC Music Magazine

• “ Meneses has a beautiful velvet tone, flawless technique, and a musical instinct that never lets him down. His playing is invariably noble, correctly inflected, and fluent.” –                            Fanfare Magazine

• “Any new recording of his is eagerly awaited and warmly recommended” –
                           Fanfare magazine

• 1 Variations concertantes Op. 17

• 2 Lied ohne Worte Op. 19 no. 1     Sonata I in B flat major Op. 45 

• 3 Allegro vivace 

• 4 Andante   

• 5 Allegro assai  

• 6 Lied ohne Worte Op. 19 no. 3    Sonata II in D major Op. 58 

• 7 Allegro assai vivace

• 8 Allegretto scherzando

• 9 Adagio

• 10 Molto Allegro e vivace

• 11 Albumblatt: Assai tranquillo

• 12 Lied ohne Worte Op. 109

• 13 Venetianisches Gondellied