![\"Cellist](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/ealovegaGerhardtOsborne.jpg\")
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By ANDREW POWELL RAVENNA \u2014 Sometimes a musician just needs a good partner. Cellist Alban Gerhardt<\/a> and pianist Steven Osborne<\/a> work magically together but have a habit of starting their recitals apart, as if to establish credentials. So it was April 11 here at the Teatro Alighieri<\/a>, home of the Ravenna Festival<\/a> in summer and a base for warmly social chamber-music offerings by Ravenna Musica<\/a> year-round. Gerhardt ran through Bach\u2019s D-Minor Cello Suite (1718) cursorily, and Osborne, with rather more engagement and much handsome phrasing, offered Beethoven\u2019s Piano Sonata No. 30, Op. 109. But the cello sonatas that followed made for an exceptional recital defined by inspired and mutually responsive playing. The duo\u2019s crisp, neat approach to Beethoven\u2019s D-Major work (1815) pointed up its lyricism and suited its layout, not least the allegro fugato<\/em> ending. In Debussy\u2019s captivating wartime sonata (1915) they sustained a vibrancy and degrees of ambiguity from start to finish, with whiffs of humor lacing the S\u00e9r\u00e9nade<\/em> movement and skill on Gerhardt\u2019s part in realizing various timbral tricks. Brahms\u2019s Cello Sonata No. 1 (1865) had great intensity and winningly concluded things before the visitors gave their large crowd an aptly flirtatious reading of Cassad\u00f3 y Moreu\u2019s Requiebros<\/em> (1934). A colorful night, and free of expressive exaggeration.<\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 Benjamin Ealovega<\/p>\n Related posts:
Published: May 19, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n
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