Reviews

“Technically her playing is unassailable, and she delivers Haydn’s two standard cello scores with a good deal of verve, vigor, and panache.”

“Technically her playing is unassailable, and she delivers Haydn’s two standard cello scores with a good deal of verve, vigor, and panache.”

“Nancy Green brings a boldly dramatic delivery to these three fine sonatas, with fluent and forthright performances that are enhanced by her clear and vocally orientated feeling for the musical line.”

“(Nancy Green) seems to better communicate emotion and feeling, and her cello sound is closer and warmer-sounding than (Yo-Yo) Ma’s (Kodály Solo Sonata on Sony Classical).”

“The year 2000 has been an intriguing listening year… each of the CDs below has, in its own way, stopped me in my tracks. Cellist Nancy Green’s… interpretation seemed to me to be the most convincing and eloquent I’d heard of this work, and one may only hope that performances of this stature will invite new contenders to tackle this monumentally difficult but magnetic work.”

“(Tovey’s) three movement sonata is replete with virtuosity, all carried off in a first-rate fashion by Green… passion and earthiness… Green captures the excitement of the music… the results are strikingly original and engaging.”

“Utterly mesmerizing in its impact, insight and thrilling virtuosity, Green’s advocacy of all she touches is, it would appear, boundlessly compelling… The present recording is little less than phenomenal… colossal presence and impulse… exemplary… brilliant. It would be hard to deny Nancy Green her deserved place among the finest interpreters of this explosive work (Kodály solo sonata).”

“Green acquits herself quite well, nailing all the special effects while also playing a lush legato line in the (Debussy) sonata’s early passages… breathlessly passionate… brilliant… Both (Green and Moyer) have technique to spare, and a gift for seamless playing. Green dazzles in the Debussy Sonata…”

“impressively striking and rhapsodic… Green carries off her role (Britten Sonata) as expertly as the music’s dedicatee, Mstislav Rostropovich.”

“Having never heard of Nancy Green, or Frederick Moyer, or JRI Recordings… I have been obliged to play this recording over and over again to convince myself I have not been dreaming, but in fact I have been wide awake each time. The music is terrific. The performances are terrific. The sound is terrific… The performances, besides being technically top-rank, adjust to the distinctive style of each piece: a veritable demonstration of “idiomatic performance” in every case… this is a strong contender for next December’s Want List.”

“some of the best chamber music playing around. If everyone related as well as Green and Moyer, the world would be a better place.”

“Staying close to Brahms’s originals in outline, Piatti’s arrangements (Brahms Hungarian Dances) are full of brilliance and brio, and it is surprising that they haven’t been recorded before. Green and Moyer play them with great enthusiasm and technical virtuosity, reveling in the atmosphere of derring-do. These are fine readings, full of warmth… This is an enjoyable disc.”

“Green and Moyer demonstrate a genuine sympathy for these pieces that sounds wholly appropriate to Piatti’s own sensitive arrangements. Virtuoso techniques, such as multiple stopping, harmonics and octave doubling, and dramatically conceived registral contrast vividly display this excellently matched duo’s intuitive response to the music’s mood swings… Green and Moyer luxuriate in the remarkable array of textural and subtly coloured effects created by Piatti’s arrangements… Schmidt’s three Fantasy Pieces, in which Green’s intelligent and perceptive phrasing of the cello’s ornate melodic lines is defly accompanied by Moyer, complete this unusual and highly rewarding programme.”

“Alfredo Piatti’s arrangements of the Brahms Hungarian Dances s are a real workout for a cellist, full of multiple stops, harmonics, parallel thirds and sixths and octaves, and any number of other challenges. They’re also splendid entertainment. Green throws herself into these pieces, making each dance a little rhapsody. She’s not averse to indulging in tempo extremes, as in the fourth dance, and she employs a free, even swooning, rubato that perfectly conveys the music’s gypsy character…”

“Nancy Green gives an elegant account, her richly mellow cello sound positively purring in the lower ranges, coupled with a sense of fiery urgency in the last fantasy… both performers display a real empathy for the Czardas and play with great panache.”

“… Soloistic and showy, the agility Piatti called for is considerable by any standard. . . deeply expressive, Nancy Green is sensitive to the rhythmic nuances of this music and she plays with impact and intensity… a very nice recording…”

“The performances are extraordinary. Nancy Green is in terrific form: her sure intonation, rhythmic nuance, and expressive shading put her in the elite of today’s concert cellists.”

“all aspects of the production are first-class: the performances, the luxuriant recorded sound, and the very thorough annotations… Strongly recommended”

“a delightful addition to the not very large cello repertoire. The interpretations of the young American cellist and her British pianist show remarkable artistry and they do justice to the music in every respect.”

“this enterprising programme can be unhesitatingly recommended both to lovers of the obscure and of luscious, warm romanticism in the Schumann-Brahms mould… beguilingly presented by Green and Palmer in a first-class recording. One would be hard of heart indeed not to fall for the slow movement of the second sonata and some of the short Fantasiestucke.”

“The music will appeal to anyone who wishes Brahms had written more cello sonatas – which surely means all who love the cello…Two fine lyrical musicians play with scrupulous affection. “