{"id":9495,"date":"2024-10-01T16:24:57","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T20:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.noemieraymond.com\/?p=9495"},"modified":"2024-12-05T14:49:59","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T19:49:59","slug":"noemie-raymond-zhenni-li-cohen-dialogues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.noemieraymond.com\/en\/noemie-raymond-zhenni-li-cohen-dialogues\/","title":{"rendered":"No\u00e9mie Raymond | Zhenni Li-Cohen: Dialogues"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1731012291046{margin-bottom: 35px !important;}”]Cet article n’est disponible qu’en anglais.<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]\"\"By now, thanks in large part to the radio play a certain British musical family is getting, the\u00a0Cello Sonata in G minor Op. 19<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0Sergei Rachmaninoff\u00a0is suddenly one of the most famous chamber works in the world. The fact is that the outstanding recording of this piece on\u00a0Muse<\/em>\u00a0[Decca, 2021] by cellist\u00a0Sheku Kanneh-Mason\u00a0and his pianist sister\u00a0Isata Kanneh-Mason\u00a0is \u2013 of course \u2013 not the only one in existence. The prodigiously gifted cellist\u00a0Hee-Young Lim\u00a0also recorded a version on her\u00a0Russian Cello Sonatas<\/em>\u00a0[Sony, 2020] \u2013 with the pianist\u00a0Nathalia Milstein\u00a0\u2013 that \u2018married poetry and power\u2019. There are, no doubt several other recordings, each with its own appeal.*<\/p>\n

However, one as spectacular as this recording by cellist\u00a0No\u00e9mie Raymond\u00a0and pianist\u00a0Zhenni Li-Cohen\u00a0on their disc\u00a0Dialogues<\/em>\u00a0has graced our memories; certainly not for a considerable length of time. One is apt to ask. \u201cWhy?\u201d Is it the existential power of the Rachmaninoff sonata? Or is the pairing of that extraordinary work with\u00a0Viola Sonata<\/em>\u00a0[1919] by\u00a0Rebecca Clarke, transcribed here for cello and piano? The answer is: both of the above. Add to that the eloquence of the performance of both works \u2013 likely a definitive interpretation of Clarke\u2019s fiendishly challenging sonata and you have a disc to die for.<\/p>\n

First things first: Miss Raymond and Miss Li-Cohen\u2019s performance of the Rachmaninoff sonata \u2013 expertly incorporating the secrets of the instrument imparted to the composer by his friend\u00a0Anatoliy Brandukov, who first performed \u2013 is a masterpiece experienced in a mirror reflecting the dark and light of the very soul of the composer. After a brief introduction, Miss Raymond cello expresses the opening movement\u2019s great yearning with a dark eloquence.<\/p>\n

The handover to Miss Li-Cohen\u2019s pianism is graceful and she carries off the musical baton, so to speak, with exquisite articulation. Thereafter the piano is the dominant partner, and only in the elegiac\u00a0Andante<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 one of Rachmaninoff\u2019s greatest achievements \u2013 does Miss Raymond\u2019s cello come back into its own. The lusciously dark tonality of Miss Raymond\u2019s beautiful instrument appears to be eminently suited to Rachmaninoff\u2019s state of mind at the time of the work\u2019s writing.<\/p>\n

This is a surging, urgent performance: the outer movements are dashed\u00a0 off with considerable passion \u2013 not the least because of Miss Raymond\u2019s psychological grasp of the [extra-musical] qualities of darkness and light, while the\u00a0Andante<\/em>\u00a0is emotional assault is traversed with dignity as well as triumphally, great feeling.<\/p>\n

The performance of Clarke\u2019s seminal work for her instrument \u2013 the viola \u2013 is not only brilliantly transcribed, but also receives a hair-raisingly marvelous rendition \u2013 completely attuned to Clarke\u2019s vision and artistry. Miss Raymond and Miss Li-Cohen take Clake\u2019s calling card and make it their own, while reverentially evoking the great \u2013 sadly all-but-neglected \u2013 mastery of Clarke\u2019s genius as a composer.<\/p>\n

Again, the dark tones of Miss Raymond\u2019s cello are pivotal to the performance of the work. This time, however, she uses her enigmatically burnished tonality to express \u2013 in the first,\u00a0Impetuoso \u2013 ma non troppo allegro<\/em>\u00a0movement \u2013 a lyrical and harmonic language that Clarke conjured from\u00a0Claude Debussy\u00a0and\u00a0Ralph Vaughan-Williams. This is especially true of Clarke\u2019s chromatic language, expressed in modes and whole-tone scales, relocated in this description to the lower gravitas of the cello.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Vivace<\/em>\u00a0movement is an compelling experience, vibrant cello is poised and often duels with the unpredictable edge to Miss Li-Cohen piano, negotiating Clarke\u2019s use of special harmonic devices and elegant\u00a0pizzicato<\/em>. The dazzling work concludes with the extraordinary sensuality that Clarke imparts to it as she reinstates the themes from the first movement. Miss Raymond and Miss Li-Cohen each capture \u2013 with a flourish \u2013 the lush and magisterial pyrotechnics that Clarke wrote in for both viola and piano parts.<\/p>\n

Miss Raymond and Miss Li-Cohen\u2019s noble performances of both sonatas ought to make this disc the first choice among modern recordings. Their searching, introspective accounts of both works is outstanding \u2013 arguably one of the most compelling cello-piano performances, despite the myriad of great historical performances available on disc through the decades.<\/p>\n

*For historically-minded aficionados some of these are Mstislav Rostropovich and Alexander Dedyukhin [1958], Lynn Harrell and Vladimir Ashkenazy [1984], Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax [1990], Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough [2002], Mischa Maisky and Sergio Tiempo [2005] and, of course, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Alexander Melnikov [2022].<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Deo gratis\u2026<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n

Music \u2013<\/em>\u00a0Sergei Rachmaninoff\u00a0[1873-1943] \u2013 Cello Sonata in G minor Op. 19 \u2013 1 I. Lento \u2013 Allegro moderato; 2 II. Allegro scherzando; 3 III. Andante; 4 IV. Allegro mosso.\u00a0Rebecca Clarke\u00a0[1886-1979] \u2013 Viola Sonata [version for cello and piano] 5 I. Impetuoso \u2013 ma non troppo allegro; 6 II. Vivace; 7 III. Adagio.<\/p>\n

Musicians \u2013<\/em>\u00a0No\u00e9mie Raymond:\u00a0vc<\/em>;\u00a0Zhenni Li-Cohen:\u00a0p<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Released: 2024
\nLabel: Leaf Music [LM295]
\n[leaf-music.ca]
\nRuntime: 1:04:37<\/p>\n

Published on Oct 1, 2024
\n<\/strong>By <\/strong>Raul da Gama<\/strong><\/a> on World Music Report<\/strong><\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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