Robert Schumann - Violin Sonatas (Isabelle Faust; Silke Avenhaus)

Information

Composer: Robert Schumann

• (01-03) Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105
• (04-07) Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121
• (08-11) Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor, WoO 2

Isabelle Faust, violin
Silke Avenhaus, piano

Date: 1999
Label: cpo

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

These performances are absolutely stunning, so much so that a reappraisal of Schumann’s Violin sonatas is in order. What once sounded like pre-Brahmsian music (as presented by Ara Malikian and Serouj Kradjian on Hänssler Classic), with its harmonic exploration and varied moods, is here revealed as the full-bodied passion of Schumann at his most impetuous. (It’s interesting to note that these two women–violinist Isabelle Faust and pianist Silke Avenhaus–come up with far more aggressive and masculine interpretations than do the two men on the Hänssler disc.)

From the urgent opening of Sonata No. 1, Faust mounts the music as if it were a wild stallion, riding out the first movement’s emotional twists and turns with a sure grip on its technical challenges. Avenhaus is right there with her, riding side saddle, making the two a formidable team. Faust pulls back slightly for Schumann’s big, overtly symphonic Sonata No. 2, especially in the dreamy adagio where she achieves a particularly beautiful tone quality. But it’s back to flame throwing for the No. 3 (a work that went unpublished until 1956), making for a powerful conclusion to the program. CPO’s sound is more compact than Hänssler’s (with its large hall acoustic), an effect that brings the duo vividly into your listening room. If you’re at all curious about Schumann’s violin sonatas (and you should be), this disc demands your investigation.

-- Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: ****
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Feb01/Schumann_VSonatas.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Sonatas-Violin-Piano-Robert-Schumann/dp/B00004W555

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Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era, and left an array of acclaimed music in virtually all the forms then known. Schumann's published compositions were written exclusively for the piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; many Lieder (songs for voice and piano); four symphonies; an opera; and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works. Schumann suffered from a lifelong mental disorder, and died in 1856 without having recovered from his illness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Schumann

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Isabelle Faust (born 1972 in Esslingen) is a German violinist. She trained with Christoph Poppen and Dénes Zsigmondy. Faust won First Prize in the 1993 Paganini Competition in Genoa, Italy. Since 1996, she has performed on the "Sleeping Beauty" Stradivarius violin of 1704, on loan from Landesbank Baden-Württemberg. Faust has performed as guest soloist with most of the world's major orchestras and won multiple awards for her recordings, mostly on Harmonia Mundi. She is a proponent of new music and has given world premieres of works by, among others, Olivier Messiaen, Werner Egk, and Jörg Widmann.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabelle_Faust

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