Violin Piano

This album features two major artists, past and present: Johannes Brahms and Arabella Steinbacher. However, even the best of artists have their less than perfect moments or works. These three sonatas, as played hereby Steinbacher and Kulek, come across as less exciting, lesser works by Brahms. The Sonata No. 1 sounds rather anemic as it begins (partly because of the recording quality), but Steinbacher chooses to play without much fullness or vibrato, even though she is playing a Stradivarius.

Though he is most often remembered for orchestrating Liszt's tone poems, Swiss composer Joachim Raff's own compositions are nevertheless quite interesting with much to recommend them. The Fourth Grand Sonata subtitled "Chormatische Sonate in einem Satze" lives up to its title by being intensely chromatic and in one thematically unified movement, lasting better than a quarter hour. The Fifth Grand Sonata is a big-boned, four-movement work lasting nearly half an hour with romantic themes, muscular developments, and powerful climaxes. The Sonatillen, originally a set of classical pasticcios for piano solo later adopted by the composer for violin and piano, is a charming little suite in five movements lasting less than 20 minutes.

We experience a meeting of two musical worlds in this recording with Franziska Pietsch and Detlev Eisinger: Karol Szymanowski's often experimental, highly original sounds (particularly in Mythes, Op. 30) are heard alongside the direct musical language of Franck's Romantic A major Violin Sonata.

Here's a deluxe package if ever there were one! Itzhak Perlman and Jorge Bolet join the Juilliard Quartet in a smashing performance of one of the most unusual works in all of music. Chausson's Concert (not "Concerto," please note) really is, in effect, a violin concerto in which the accompaniment is not the full orchestra but a piano quintet. Add to that the fully symphonic form of the piece, and the result is a unique musical creation that remains one of the chamber-music repertoire's best-kept secrets. Listen to this recording, and you'll be amazed that the music's not better known.

Gidon Kremer and Valery Afanassiev enter a hotly contested area with this new release of works for violin and piano by Schubert, and they emerge as clear leaders in the field. All of their rivals do, of course, offer fine, if not always totally sympathetic accounts of these works, but with the exception of Isaac Stern and Daniel Barenboim, none can approach the Russian duo in terms of their stylistic awareness and affinity with the hidden aspects of the Schubertian genre.

The Poulenc Violin Sonata is still a relative rarity on record. I'm baffled by this, as it is one of Poulenc's most unique and musically rewarding works. This performance by Lin and Crossley is excellent; indeed they nearly match the superlative recording made by Kolja Blacher and Eric Le Sage for RCA. The brighter, more lively RCA recording adds a little extra sparkle and energy to the latter. However, in both instances, each violinist has the benefit of being joined by pianists who have made a specialty of Poulenc.

Anyone interested in stunning violin artistry should buy this amazing disc straightaway. It’s one of the best things I’ve heard in a long time. I hadn’t come across Tianwa Yang’s Sarasate series for Naxos before but I will certainly search out the other discs as a matter of some urgency. Her playing is simply extraordinary - no wonder she’s been described as “A Pride of China”. This isn’t one of those flashy, hollow, 20-notes-a-second recitals that quite frankly drive me to distraction.

Schubert himself was an able violinist, whose idiomatic writing for the instrument is charmingly evident in his violin and piano sonatas. Moreover, enhanced by sympathetic recording, Biondi and Tverskaya here play a modern copy of a 1740 violin, and a c1820 Graf fortepiano that vividly evoke this music’s fragrant atmosphere. Arresting spontaneity invigorated by Biondi’s stylish extempore ornamentation reveals a potent mix of youthful vigour, ardent passion and delicate poignancy. An essential disc for all Schubertians.

Portugal doesn't get much credit for seemingly any of her accomplishments, but they are substantial, particularly in art. These absolutely lovely violin sonatas from two composers who worked in the 20th century not only rectify this oversight, they add unquestionably to an already rich violin repertoire. Monteiro and Santos have had my attention for quite some time now, this 2010 release is simply another success in a line of great releases. I've admired their artistry, but it really is a treat to hear them in music that is so clearly close to them.

Period-instrument performances of Beethoven's violin sonatas aren't too common; they pose thorny problems of balance even beyond the question of whether Beethoven wouldn't have preferred modern instruments if he could have had them. But this superbly musical set by violinist Midori Seiler, playing an Italian Baroque violin of unknown manufacture, and fortepianist Jos van Immerseel, on a copy of an entirely appropriate Viennese Walter piano, may well redefine the standard for these works.