Karine Georgian - Schumann: Music for Cello and Piano (2011)

Though he infrequently wrote for the cello specifically, Schumann still had an affinity for the instrument. It holds an important place in his chamber music scores, and he included the cello as potential secondary instruments on a number of his duo works with piano. Apart from the Five Pieces in Popular Style -- the only chamber work scored specifically for the instrument -- the remainder of the cello's repertoire from Schumann comes in the form of transcriptions. This Naxos album, entitled Music for Cello and Piano curiously omits the Five Pieces and focuses entirely on transcriptions and works for which the cello was listed as an alternate instrument. Cellist Karine Georgian and pianist Jan Willem Nelleke (who penned the transcriptions of the Op. 105 Violin Sonata and Clara Schumann's Op. 22 Three Romances) join for what proves to be a surprisingly lackluster affair. Given Georgian's pedigree as a Rostropovich protégée and a Tchaikovsky Competition Gold Medalist, it's unexpected to hear so many shifts fall short, so many notes that are not quite in tune, and a sound quality that is not quite suited for chamber music. A frequent concerto performer, Georgian's tone is lean and projecting, more appropriate for punching through an orchestra than the intimacy of chamber music. Her vibrato is anachronistically wide and persistent, but it is her lack of precision in intonation that most greatly detracts from the success of this album.