Tuesday 19 January 2010

Brahms - Violin Sonata 3 [Frank/Serkin]

Well this Sonata only appeared in my Blog eight days ago, but this is a different interpretation, plus it's so good to get another opinion on the same work, like looking at a gem from a different angle, you see another facet of this work.

Pamela Frank and Peter Serkin are a great partnesrship, they seem to have purposely looked at the unusual in this sonata, it's as if they decided to look at all the alternative possibilities, and then chose something different to say, i think theirs is a slightly darker/sombre interpretation than usual, however they are not too wayward, they have a fresh way of seeing things, the adagio second movement really is slow, but even here their conclusions are valid, and the results are worth more than a listen, i like these discoveries they made.

This time i enjoyed the first movement allegro, here Serkin's piano has a particular ringing tone to it, the recording seems to accentuate the bass in the piano, while at contrast Frank's violin favours the higher notes, making the most of the extremes of the instruments, already in a minor key, they add to it by creating dark rumblings in the slower passages, theirs is an intense reading, i really enjoyed this today.

Here's Oistrakh playing this Sonata on YouTube.