Many recorded attempts have been made at the union of cello and organ and usually the same sets of problems come up: the organ covers the cello, there's too much reverb on the cello, the cello's sound is distant...and the list goes on. This album by cellist
Alexandru Morosanu and organist
George Athanasiades makes some strides to overcome these issues. This is not to say there are not some sound quality and balance issues, but rather this album does better than most. Long pedal tones in the organ still cover the cello at times, and the middle register of the cello has a difficult time penetrating the space of the church in which the album was recorded. This collection, primarily consisting of transcriptions, ranges from Tartini and Vivaldi to
Shostakovich and
Enescu, yet
Morosanu's playing varies little between the centuries. His intonation is good -- no small feat when playing with an organ -- and his tone is necessarily quite thin in order to be heard over the organ. His vibrato is somewhat like a certain battery spokes-animal: it just keeps going on full, yielding a sound quality that gets a little old by the end of the CD. Still, if cello and organ are a favored medium, this disc offers a more satisfying experience than most.