The wonder of reviewing music isn’t a refining of one’s ability to hear new and interesting music, it’s also a chance to learn about the scores of personalities that truly understand their instruments, become great at them, and create compositions that may last another 400 years as their predecessors did before. That is what is so dazzling about Wanderer Sonata for Piano and Cello Movement #3 by Ethan Lazarus. Cello and piano are often brought to accompany one another, but with this song, it’s as if you can hear the 40 years of writing and refining that has been done in order to put this project together.
From the way it starts until it finally ends, Wanderer Sonata for Piano and Cello Movement #3 finds a way to accompany both instruments. They work as much more of a single unit from the beginning to the end of this song with its much more complex cello ending. While it doesn't say who the piano player is, the belief is that the player is Carl Algermissen. He and Lazarus have been playing together for nearly 36 years with no ending in sight. As a result, these are two instruments that understand each other intimately and are so used to working together you can hear it in the production.
Cello and piano start together. They make changes together. They slide in and accompany each other and trade as leads in areas where it makes sense to do so. The cello is not “accompanied” any more than the piano is. They work together as only two long-time performers could make happen.
Playing together as Grand Tango for almost 40 years, Lazarus and Algermissen bring together their skill with their instruments to make the Wanderer Sonata for Piano and Cello Movement #3 “sing” on its own. In 1984, Lazarus and Algermissen established themselves as a cello-piano duo, deciding to work together on a years-long project to transcribe and arrange works by Argentinian tango composer Astor Piazzolla. Piazzolla did not often compose for these two instruments alone, but I think that fact is what made the idea so irresistible to the pair. Even the idea of taking on such a massive project would be enough to make me reconsider music as a profession. For these gentlemen, however, it must have been an average Tuesday. Here is a taste of what Piazzolla brought out with his own training in composition creation.
Wanderer Sonata for Piano and Cello Movement #3 by Ethan Lazarus takes the familiar pieces of the cello and blasts them across the piano as if it wants to accompany life in this moment. There is no need to disengage from it. The actual principle on display is to enjoy what’s happening. You can hear the decades of experience in the players and you can make your own decision about where you’d like to put this on your own soothing Spotify playlist. Check out the other movements as well and place yourself in the true space of original classical music.
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