Brahms Sonatas for Viola and Piano, Op 120
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johannes Brahms
Label: ECM New Series
Magazine Review Date: 12/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 44
Catalogue Number: 457 068-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Sonata for Viola and Piano No. 1 |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Johannes Brahms, Composer Kim Kashkashian, Viola Robert Levin, Piano |
| Sonata for Viola and Piano No. 2 |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Johannes Brahms, Composer Kim Kashkashian, Viola Robert Levin, Piano |
Author: Joan Chissell
As readers by now scarcely need reminding, it was the eloquent artistry of the Meiningen clarinettist, Richard Muhlfeld, that rekindled Brahms’s imagination just at the moment when he felt his life’s work was done. A glance at the Gramophone Database reveals that though clarinettists still lead in claiming the two Op. 120 Sonatas as their own, players of the viola (Brahms’s prescribed alternative) are not very far behind. So not surprisingly Kim Kashkashian and Robert Levin are up against formidable competition.
Both play with total commitment. But whereas Kashkashian, with her ingratiatingly mellow tone and sensitively yielding phrasing, seems to meet the 61-year-old composer on his own ground, Levin more often reminded me of the robust young Brahms with a cause still to win. In reflective contexts he shows himself well able to share his partner’s confidences. But even in the comparatively benign Second Sonata (which inexplicably they choose to play first) there are some disproportionate outbursts at the sight of a forte marking, with loss of sheer keyboard refinement – as in his lumpy handling of the rich chordal theme in the second movement’s Trio. The stormier F minor work brings bigger temptations – a situation not helped by what struck me as too forward a placing of the instrument itself.
With such warmly praised rivals as (amongst others) Zukerman-Barenboim, Imai-Vignoles and the young Norwegians Tomter-Andsnes (all of whom also include an extra work) I feel the newcomers’ mere 44 minutes would have been more fairly offered at mid price.'
Both play with total commitment. But whereas Kashkashian, with her ingratiatingly mellow tone and sensitively yielding phrasing, seems to meet the 61-year-old composer on his own ground, Levin more often reminded me of the robust young Brahms with a cause still to win. In reflective contexts he shows himself well able to share his partner’s confidences. But even in the comparatively benign Second Sonata (which inexplicably they choose to play first) there are some disproportionate outbursts at the sight of a forte marking, with loss of sheer keyboard refinement – as in his lumpy handling of the rich chordal theme in the second movement’s Trio. The stormier F minor work brings bigger temptations – a situation not helped by what struck me as too forward a placing of the instrument itself.
With such warmly praised rivals as (amongst others) Zukerman-Barenboim, Imai-Vignoles and the young Norwegians Tomter-Andsnes (all of whom also include an extra work) I feel the newcomers’ mere 44 minutes would have been more fairly offered at mid price.'
Brahms Sonatas for Viola and Piano, Op 120
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