A duo album featuring violinist
Jaime Laredo and cellist
Sharon Robinson may raise high hopes for a wonderfully musical chamber music experience. Surprisingly, however, Conversations is really only mediocre at best. The highlight of the album is David Ott's composition Conversations, commissioned by
Laredo and
Robinson, which cleverly depicts six discussions of varying degrees of emotion between a husband and wife. The remainder of the album features standard repertoire that is not performed to the level of many other recordings available. The Handel/Halvorsen Passacaglia is quite slow throughout and is nowhere near as exciting or articulate as the recording made by the
Capuçon brothers. Glière's charming set of eight duets is curiously cut in half and only four movements are offered here; with a total time of only 62 minutes, the remaining four movements could (and should) have easily been included. Finally comes the
Kodály Op. 7 Duo, a work immortalized by the performance of
Janos Starker and Josef Gingold. In an apparent effort to do something unique with their own interpretation of the work,
Laredo and
Robinson greatly alter the rhythms by incessantly elongating the first notes of phrases and slowing down or speeding up where no such change is indicated. Intonation throughout the album is not what would be expected from two artists of their caliber. If you're looking for something new, this album is worthwhile for Ott's Conversations, but look elsewhere for reference recordings for the remainder of the pieces.