Brahms Violin Sonatas nos 2 & 3 etc
Isabelle Faust/Alexander Melnikov
(Harmonia Mundi)
WITH the best will in the world, I wonder how this disc will fare. The performers are peerless: violinist Isabelle Faust and pianist Alexander Melnikov already have two stunning releases in their ongoing Schumann concertos series. With their partner, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras yet to produce the Cello Concerto, there are high expectations. Faust and Melnikov have already moved into the Brahms camp with their recording of the First Violin Sonata. Here are the Second and Third Sonatas, suave, warm and pure in the hands of Faust, with Melnikov in dazzling form on his 1875 Bosendorfer piano. I just cannot get my head around the coupling, the “collegiate” FAE Sonata with three different composers, Schumann, Brahms and one Albert Dietrich, wellying in to write a movement each, to construct a birthday present for the great violinist Joseph Joachim. It still sounds like a three-bit Sonata. I shall give it another go, and see if there’s masterpiece hiding there.
Michael Tumelty
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