This album is included in the following sets:
This set contains the following albums:
- Producer's Note
- Full Track Listing
- Cover Art
Raya Garbousova's Debussy Sonata - a lost gem!
Remastered for finest sound quality
This wonderful recording of Debussy's 1915 Sonata for Cello and Piano
is without doubt one of those lost gems we love to discover and
remaster for Pristine Audio Direct. It is one of those rare occasions
where the resources of both myself and Peter Harrison have been pooled
to bring you the best possible sound quality from this recording.
Though
information is scant, we believe the recording was originally made for
78rpm discs in the late 1940s, and was shortly afterwards transferred
for vinyl issue. Thus Peter carried out the initial transcription and
dealt with the worst of the vinyl noise, leaving effectively a pretty
good 78rpm transfer for me to then tackle.
Those with a good
knowledge of cellists will need no introduction to Raya Garbousova
(1909-97) - she was without doubt one of the foremost instrumentalists
of her generation. Take a listen to our sample of the finale of this
short sonata to get a taste of her full command of both her instrument
and the music.
Born in Russia, she was a prodigy, playing in
Moscow and Leningrad by the age of 15. The following year she went to
Leipzig with the intention of studying there under Klengel. After a
three-hour interview he declared that as she already knew everything she
could not be his student! In the years which followed she was
reponsible for many premières, including sonatas by Martinu and
Prokofiev, and the Barber Concerto, commissioned and written for her.
Her
accompanist here, Artur Balsam, features on a number of recordings
available from Pristine Classical - the pairing here is exquisite.
Andrew Rose
-
DEBUSSY Cello Sonata
Originally released circa 1952 on Guilde International du Disque LP MMS-53
Believed to be transcriptions of earlier 78rpm disc recordings, 1946
Duration 12:57
Raya Garbousova, cello
Artur Balsam, piano
Bill Rosen's Review
If Madame Garbousova's embonpoint is to your taste, this will be an ideal recording of the work
The Debussy Cello Sonata is one of the three late works Debussy
completed out of a projected six before cancer claimed him in 1917. Like
the other two works, it is somewhat mysterious, spare, elliptical and
points toward Stravinsky and Webern. To me it is a Pierrot, not
moonstruck like Schoenberg's nor amorous and light as from the Commedia
dell' Arte, but moody, gray, ill-nourished and neurasthenic. It is an
older brother to Ravel's Scarbo.
Madame Garbousova's performance
is exceedingly well played, but does not fit my conception of the work.
Her Pierrot seems to have married well and to have just been elected a
Provincial Councillor in a Department in Southern France. Her cello tone
is very full and romantic in the first movement with superb cello
pizzicati in the second. The third movement serenade is closer to my
ideal; one is reminded that Spain was an almost unvisited distant love
of Debussy.
I must also add that both the cello and piano sound
is very fine, and if Madame Garbousova's embonpoint is to your taste,
this will be an ideal recording of the work.