The “immaculate” sound of Robert Levin and Steven Isserlis’ Beethoven Cello Sonatas has been recently released on the Hyperion label and said to contain “some of the finest Beethoven performances you are likely to hear” (BBC Music Magazine).
The recording presents the five sonatas with cello and has received high praise from Geoff Brown in The Times who describes Robert Levin’s playing as “muscular music-making.” Helen Wallace in the BBC Music Magazine describes the dialogue between the “two powerful minds” as “dynamic, intimate” and “often electric.” She continues, “At best, it’s unbeatable… there isn’t a better version with fortepiano.”
It has been named Recording of the Month in Gramophone Magazine with Nalen Anthony describing Levin as “no mere accompanist.” This “fleshed out” recording represents a “shared experience of audacity and spirituality” between the two artists.
Robert Levin plays a copy by Paul McNulty of a Walter & Sohn fortepiano from c1805, with a five-and-a-half octave range and una corda pedal.
More information is available at Hyperion.
