Search - Dussek, Andrew Fuller :: Romantic Cello

A star pupil of Stanford's at the Royal College of Music, William Hurlstone (1876-1906) was a composer of undoubted gifts, and works such as the exhilarating Variations on a Hungarian Air and Piano Quartet readily proclaim a budding genius. If his posthumously published Cello Sonata in D Major isn't quite in the same league, it's an immensely engaging, beautifully crafted creation all the same, with just an occasional glimpse of greatness (the last appearance of the rondo-finale's theme has a genuinely memorable wistfulness about it). By contrast, Parry's A major sonata of 1879 wears an altogether more imposing, dark-hued demeanor, the big-boned piano writing providing a timely reminder that the aspiring 31-year-old composer had completed his ambitious Piano Concerto in F-sharp Major only a few months previously. Sandwiched between the two main items come four winsome drawing-room miniatures written early in the career of that great conductor-to-be, Sir Hamilton Harty (1879-1941). Truthful sound to complement some unfailingly sympathetic performances make this release well worth investigating. --Andrew Achenbach