Brahms: Cello Sonatas

Pöntinen and Thedéen perform Brahms’ two Cello Sonatas as well as a version for cello of Brahm’s Violin Sonata in G major Op.78. For a long time it was considered to be the composer’s own arrangement, but it is now known to have been made in 1879 by Paul Klengel, an acquaintance of Brahms’ and brother of the famous cellist Julius Klengel. Torleif Thedéen and Roland Pöntinen made their first recording together almost 25 years ago and have continued to play together ever since, in recital and on disc. Their previous disc was an all-Schnittke programme, released to great acclaim: ‘Thedéen's playing is wonderfully expressive - focused, clean, beautifully voiced…’ wrote the reviewer in International Record Review. Naming the disc a ‘benchmark recording’, his colleague in BBC Music Magazine described the performers as a partnership ‘in a class of its own’.