BEETHOVEN; FRANCK; SCHUMANN Violin Sonatas (Renaud Capuçon)

Record and Artist Details

Genre:

Chamber

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 83

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 486 3533

486 3533. BEETHOVEN; FRANCK; SCHUMANN Violin Sonatas (Martha Argerich)

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 9, 'Kreutzer' Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Martha Argerich, Piano
Renaud Capuçon, Violin
Sonata for Violin and Piano César Franck, Composer
Martha Argerich, Piano
Renaud Capuçon, Violin
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 Robert Schumann, Composer
Martha Argerich, Piano
Renaud Capuçon, Violin

I’m not sure whether it’s significant that all three works are in A major/minor, but this concert from last Easter’s Aix Festival was dedicated to the memory of the pianist Nicholas Angelich, a close friend and collaborator of both Capuçon and Argerich. Emotions were surely running high but it is evident that the music-making was only enhanced by the circumstances.

What’s fascinating is the way these two musicians create performances of such charismatic individuality without seeming to do very much – other than play magnificently, of course. Martha Argerich maintains her unique ability to make even the most mundane musical line sound as an integral part of a conversation, with musical figures tumbling into one another, rather than waiting their turn. A free approach to dynamics seems as if felt in the moment, and a generous rubato is entirely organic, not imposed or calculated. You notice this throughout the Schumann that opens the programme; and over Argerich’s molten accompaniment, Renaud Capuçon drapes his velvety, sweet tone, never feeling the need to dig in or to uglify his sound for rhetorical effect. Schumann apparently wasn’t happy with his First Violin Sonata, but then he hadn’t heard Capuçon and Argerich play it.

The same goes for the Kreutzer, in which tempos are pushed but the players aren’t stretched. Not that they make it sound easy – just natural, and a breathtaking display of untiring virtuosity and pinpoint coordination. As for the Franck, a work that in the wrong hands can come over as somewhat diffuse on its way to its earworm peroration, this is storytelling that grips the listener from beginning to end. The microphones pick up some foot-stamping and occasional vocalisation but this is an unmissable memento of what must have been a truly memorable concert. Utterly magical.

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