Search - Mendelssohn-Hensel, Serbescu :: Piano Works 2

Mendelssohn's music shines through a mediocre performance

01/19/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Even though I did not agree with many interpretative decisions that Serbescu makes on this recording, I am really grateful to her for making this recording at all, because of the scarcity of recordings of Mendelssohn-Hensel's works. I found the c minor sonata to be ambitious, but rather uninteresting as a whole. The G minor sonata, on the other hand, displays some highly imaginative and innovative writing for the piano. Fanny Mendelssohn is obviously influenced by Beethoven and her brother Felix in this forward-looking work. It is to be played with no breaks between movements, looking forward to the great Liszt Sonata. The performance of these pieces is at times stilted and dry. I would call it almost boring, as Serbescu makes little effort to change the character of the repetitions of the rondo movement of the G minor sonata. In all, this CD is worth buying just to hear some rarely performed, but very good music."