That genius of Brahms which was exemplified with the Second Piano Concerto is once again on display here: the Violin Sonatas are three of his best Chamber works, written with care, tenderness and a musical intuition unlike any other.Schumann, Brahms' mentor, was often quoted as seeing an unfertilised genius within the young Romantic, and gave him many opportunities to compose, so allowing his genius to grow. Two products of this were the Piano Sonatas and the Intermezzos (superbly recorded by Radu Lupu on Decca), though the latter set was not 'through-composed'.
The Violin Sonatas are touching, Romantic and bold journeys through the mind of a tortured man at various peaks of his musical and pianistic career. Here and there we get a foretaste of music to come: for instance, the third movement of the D minor Sonata has an almost Profokievan feel to it, without diverting too much from the Romantic mould.
And, again, Perlman's and Ashkenazy's playing is perfect. I have often been known to focus too much on Ashkenazy (he is my favourite pianist after all) but here I would like to reverse that and focus instead on Perlman. His playing reminds me of their earlier coupling when recording the Franck sonata: utter, mesmerising beauty. Perlman is technically flawless and wonderfully musical. I must admit that my appreciation of the violin is marred by a slight dislike of its timbre, but here I can find no substitute for the feeling Perlman's playing evokes. A true master of touch and musicality, Perlman's playing gives a wonderful voice for Brahms in these sonatas.
The recorded sound here is very warm, even though it is a digital original/DDD; the earlier sounds of analogue transfer are almost wished for on some digital recordings, but need not be sought here!
Other recommended recordings I can think of are the couplings of Martzy and Hajdu on Coup d'Archet, de Vito and Fischer on Testament and lastly Suk and Katchen again on Decca. Whilst these sets of recordings do not match up to the treatment of Perlman and Ashkenazy, they do nevertheless give Brahms a good run through, and are worth listening to even if you do not like the interpretations.
