Brahms - Violin Sonata 3 [Mullova/ Anderszewski]
I now have at least 11 Brahms Violin Sonata discs, it's so good to have a whole raft of different Violinists, each with their own unique take on this music, each adds to the other, rather than compete for attention, this is a disc that i admit that is not in the top half of my favourites, Mullova is just too matter of fact, she seems devoid of colours at times, playing Brahms in black and white, but she has her own way with rubato, but her vibrato is kept to a minimum, and it can rob the music of a nice singing tone, but there's still great things aplenty in this music.
Viktoria Mullova is Russian, now 52, she recorded this disc in 1995, the front cover photograph [by Brigitte Lacombe] is of two separate photographs used together, the skin tones / shadows are so different, you couldn't get them on the same photograph, an interesting photographic idea, but i don't particularly like the lettering in the middle.
It was the Third Sonata where i fell that Mullova / Anderszewski really let their hair down, they seem to be more intense / impassioned, no more so than in the first movement, it's in D Minor, D for Death!, ha ha, Mozart and Faure's Requiems, and Schubert's Death And The Maiden Quartet are in this key, and certainly in the first movement there's sorrow and grief, but anger too,
Here's Itzhak Perlman playing the first movement of the Third Sonata on YouTube, Daniel Barenboim is the Pianist.
