Brahms: Violin Sonatas Nos. 2 & 3
Isabelle Faust (violin) and Alexander Melnikov (piano)
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, November 2015, Chamber Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2015
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International Classical Music Awards, 2016, Winner - Chamber
[a] beautifully balanced performance, and the warmth and intimacy of the recording is an excellent match.
Brahms: Violin Sonatas Nos. 2 & 3
Isabelle Faust (violin) and Alexander Melnikov (piano)
Purchase product
Awards:
-
BBC Music Magazine, November 2015, Chamber Choice
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2015
-
International Classical Music Awards, 2016, Winner - Chamber
[a] beautifully balanced performance, and the warmth and intimacy of the recording is an excellent match.
About
A 19th-century ‘trio sonata’. Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov have already given us an acclaimed version Brahms’s First Violin Sonata, in 2007. They now complete the cycle with the other two sonatas of 1886 and 1888, and add a fascinating rarity dating from 35 years earlier: the ‘F-A-E’ Sonata, a collaborative effort by three composers in honour of the great violinist Joachim, who had to guess who had written which movement! He did so with ease, for the Scherzo is as eminently Brahmsian as the Intermezzo and Finale are Schumannesque. Alexander Melnikov will be contributing his take on a score his mother gave him that belonged to Sviatoslav Richter in September BBC Music Magazine.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
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BBC Music MagazineNovember 2015Chamber Choice
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Presto Recordings of the YearFinalist 2015
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International Classical Music Awards2016Winner - Chamber
CD Review 5th September 2015
[a] beautifully balanced performance, and the warmth and intimacy of the recording is an excellent match.
October 2015
Enthralling, lovely performances.
27th September 2015
Melnikov’s 1875 Bösendorfer piano sounds splendidly grainy, transparent and powerful, often overwhelming Faust’s gut-stringed violin in Brahms’s louder moments, but blending ideally in the elegiac slow movements.
27th September 2015
The first Brahms sonata recorded by Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov on period instruments made a big impression...Melnikov’s 1875 Bösendorfer piano sounds splendidly grainy, transparent and powerful, often overwhelming Faust’s gut-stringed violin in Brahms’s louder moments, but blending ideally in the elegiac slow movements.
21st October 2015
Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov (playing an 1875 Bösendorfer) make a strong case for the work as a whole, though even their impassioned advocacy can’t quite save Dietrich’s opening movement from sounding long- winded. In Brahms’s Second and Third Violin Sonatas, the players’ sound world may be a little too muscularly lean for some tastes. Still, the musical argument is always lucid.
International Classical Music Awards 2016
One of the most interesting duos in many years, Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov explore the richness of two late Brahms sonatas on period instruments and in an historical informed manner. Their most sensible and beautifully balanced sound also enriches the ‘F-A-E’ Sonata, a collaborative effort by three composers in honour of Joseph Joachim.
