Music / andre soloinstrumenter

Works for solo cello


Reviews (5)


Classics today

2021

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Jed Distler

2021

"Wilhelmina Smith's lustrous sonority, wide dynamic range, and impeccable control in the highest registers bring forth the music's potential for color and drama ... An unqualified recommendation for the Nørgård, but listeners interested in the Ruders should sample both Smith and Zeuthen".


The art music lounge

2020

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Lynn René Bayley

2020

"I compared this performance to one by cellist Morten Zeuthen on Dacapo and found that he played the score more like music and less like effects. So the cat is out of the bag! For all her great technique, Smith has very little concept of musical style. She revels in the novelty of the pieces she plays, but unless the audience is familiar with the music she is performing-and most, including myself, would not know unless we compared her to someone else-they wouldn't know that this music can be made to sound more attractive than how she plays it. Just to be sure, I checked out Zeuthen's recording of the Nørgård Solo Sonata No. 1, and yet again I found that I enjoyed the music much better in his reading, so much so that it almost sounds like an entirely different piece ... So there you go. The music itself is interesting, but Smith's playing really and truly isn't".


BBC music magazine

2021 April

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Freya Parr

2021 April

"Having previously focused on Finnish composers, Smith now turns to the Danes. Although Nørgård and Poul Ruders are best known for their large-scale works, Smith shows the radiance of their solo pieces".


Klassisk

2021, nr. 60

By

2021, nr. 60

"Den amerikanske cellist Wilhelmina Smith indspillede en række solo-celloværker af Esa-Pekka Salonen og Kaija Saariaho i 2019, der alle bød på et fængslende og nærværende udtryk. Hendes lyd har både en vovet klang og en delikat lethed over sig ... Per Nørgårds to cellosonater er komponeret tidligt i hans karriere ... Sonaterne er skrevet i en lyrisk stil ... Poul Ruders' 'Bravourstudien' stammer fra 1976 og ... indebærer, at solisten både skal fløjte og nynne undervejs".


The gramophone

2021 April

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Andrew Mellor

2021 April

"The American cellist brings much to the works here but the most admirable quality of all is an extreme clarity that suits the music ... Smith explains their rubric as clearly as possible, which serves the bigger structure. The accuracy of her intonation, here and everywhere, is uncanny (the Nørgård Sonatas) ... Faced with her own extraordinary range of technical and expressive abilities, still errs toward a less-is-more approach - truly an honorary Scandinavian (Ruders)".