Nicolas Altstaedt - Salonen: Cello Concerto & Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Cello - Fanfare

By the time Ravel finished writing the sonata in 1922 (at its premiere it was called “Ravel Duo”), his style had reached a major turning point. Here are two artists-partners making everything audible in the score, with wide-open imagination and gusto. No wonder Altsteadt recalls French critic Alexis Roland-Manuel once joking about turning Ravel’s sonata into a “reduced version for orchestra.”Ravel had fears of the sonata “being assassinated by amateurs.” I’ve never heard it more alive than with Altsteadt-Kuusisto!