Hungarian Music for Cello and Piano is in a genre of music containing an abundance of literature, yet a substantial amount of this repertoire was not originally composed for that instrumentation. Of the eight works performed on this Naxos album, only half (the Popper Mazurka and Serenade,
Dohnányi Sonata, and
Rózsa Roccata) began their lives as works for cello. The remaining four were all arranged by their composers at a later date, a fact that certainly does not detract from their importance in the repertoire. Performed by cellist
Mark Kosower and pianist Jee-Won Oh, this well-programmed disc is dedicated to
Janos Starker and
György Sebök, two musicians whose playing virtually defines the Hungarian idiom. Like their dedicatees,
Kosower and Oh play with immense precision in intonation, articulation, phrasing, and dynamics.
Kosower's playing in particular is pleasingly lucid in even the most rapid of passagework and filled with a warm, velvety tone. All in all, it is a very solid, well-executed performance. What this duo lacks that
Starker and
Sebök possess in abundance is a truly convincing Hungarian sound. There's often not enough grit, not enough digging in, and a tendency to be too "nice" where a little aggression might have been preferable.