Guide to records -- Hueber's Piano Sonata, Cello Sonata, Solo Cello Sonata and Solo Cello Capriccio and Fussl's Duo and Five Tones--Five Fingers by Amos Chitta and Stefana Chitta

Abstract

Review.

HUEBER: Piano Sonata; Cello Sonata; Solo Cello Sonata; Solo Cello Capriccio FUSSL: Duo; Five Tones-Five Fingers Amos Chitta, vc; Stefana Chitta, p Vienna Modem Masters 2010 (Albany) 57 minutes

Kurt Anton Hueber (b. 1928) and Karl Heinz Fuessl (1924) are both professors at the Vienna Music University. The music of both is traditional in style, compactly organized, and quite listenable Hueber has a fondness for the sound of bell overtones, which he reproduces in his piano writing. He gets the lion's share of this program, and I enjoyed every minute while the piano was on stage. Fuessl is also fun, though his music is less clear-cut in style.

Stefana has a lively style and agile fingers. I can't say as much for Amos, whose fingers will only go so fast and whose intonation is unreliable. His part of the disc is painful to the ear much of the time and makes the Kodaly-style solo pieces rather a chore. I would be happy to recommend this program of attractive music, but cannot.