Customer Reviews

Brahms: Complete Works for Violin and Piano

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4 star:		(3)
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Most famous violinists, especially those who like chamber music, eventually get aorund to making a record of the three Brahms sonatas. Nikolaj Znaider is arriving fairly early in his career; he is still a budding star, but on acquaintance with his early CDs and after hearing him in concert, I'm impressed by his sensitivity and musicality.

Here he gives us very laid back versions of all three sonatas. The first begins Vivace, ma non troppo, and Znaider takes the last words ("but not too much") to heart. He's relaxed to a fault, and this tendency remains constant in the two later sonatas. I was hoping that he'd find more passion and intensity for Sonata #3, the most ambitious of Brahms's violin works with piano, but if an;ything Znaider becomes meditative. That's fine in itself, but this music already tends to stick to the same emotional track, and to avoid monotony, the solist needs to find dramatic contraswts where he can. Znaider doesn't try to do that, and in Bronfman he has a piano partner who's customarily low key in chamber music. In short, these are two fine musicians, but Brahms needs less caution and more passion.

Nikolaj Znaider is a gentleman's violinist exercising modesty and restraint when needed most. Not one to grandstand and parade his virtuosity, Znaider approaches each work in a somewhat laid back way. He makes this look all too easy. With Yefim Bronfman on piano, Znaider is wise to minimize embellishments for the sake of harmony and tonal balance. This is the ideal approach considering RCA's warm sonic engineering since neither the violin nor the piano overshadows the other. Perhaps both Znaider and Bronfman may be considered too "old school" for some, but for those like me who appreciate a more patrician approach, this interpretation of Brahms' violin sonatas suits us just fine.

Overall then: Performance: 4 stars. Recording/Sonic Engineering: 5 stars. Packaging/Presentation: 4 stars. Track Listing: 4 stars

it's very good. it's hard to not love brahms. i really liked the recording but i think the perlman/ashkenazy recording is better. but either one is gorgeous listening.