Beethoven: The Sonatas for Piano and Cello album review – Watkins and Bax have a shared desire to deliver the perfect expression | Classical music

Acellist of the Nash Ensemble and the Emerson Quartet, Paul Watkins he has included himself in almost all the chamber music that Beethoven wrote. Now he brings years of experience to his first recording of cello sonatas. He approached the pianist Alessio Bax this project after hearing him play the Moonlight Sonata, and his instincts were good: their playing here seems to come from a shared collective, speaking clearly without seeming to be trying to act.

Together these five sonatas constitute the life of Beethoven’s writing. The first two dates to his first piano concertos, and found Beethoven breaking new ground in his writing for cello and keyboard as two accompanists. Both sonatas have slow, expressive introductions that lead to long movements that showcase the pianist’s mastery, as Bax soars with a light touch. The third major, Op 69, which Beethoven worked on together with the Fifth Symphony, is based on a central movement similar to a symphonic scherzo; it’s well weighted here, the movement continues with all the design changes. The last two sonatas make full use of Watkins’ expressive power, especially No 5, the only one of them all to have a slow movement. It begins slowly, almost in a song-like style and blossoms into something more melodious; Watkins and Bax drive his closing passages with tight restraints, then sweetly clear the air with the prelude to the final little fugue. Everything is beautifully designed.

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