COMPOSERS: Brahms
LABELS: DG
WORKS: The Viola Sonatas
PERFORMER: Pinchas Zukerman (viola/violin) Daniel Barenboim (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: 437 248-2 ADD (1975)
Compelling ardour and noble patrician resolve characterise these superbly remastered performances. Zukerman’s mellifluous yet expansively conceived readings of the Op. 120 Viola Sonatas, originally intended for the great clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, are searching and yet suffused with an autumnal radiance entirely typical of late Brahms. Barenboim’s alertly discursive accompaniment has emphatic gravitas, too, notably in the superb account of the Scherzo, Brahms’s contribution to the FAE Sonata, with Zukerman in his more familiar role as violinist.Michael Jameson
Brahms: The Viola Sonatas
Compelling ardour and noble patrician resolve characterise these superbly remastered performances. Zukerman’s mellifluous yet expansively conceived readings of the Op. 120 Viola Sonatas, originally intended for the great clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, are searching and yet suffused with an autumnal radiance entirely typical of late Brahms. Barenboim’s alertly discursive accompaniment has emphatic gravitas, too, notably in the superb account of the Scherzo, Brahms’s contribution to the FAE Sonata, with Zukerman in his more familiar role as violinist.Michael Jameson
Our rating
5
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:30 pm