Johannes Brahms - Viola Sonatas (Kim Kashkashian; Robert Levin)

Information

Composer: Johannes Brahms

• (01) Viola Sonata in E flat major, Op. 120 No. 2
• (04) Viola Sonata in F minor, Op. 120 No. 1

Kim Kashkashian, viola

Robert Levin, piano

Date: 1997

Label: ECM

https://www.ecmrecords.com/shop/143038752264/johannes-brahms-sonaten-fur-viola-und-klavier-kim-kashkashian-robert-levin

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Review

As readers by now scarcely need reminding, it was the eloquent artistry of the Meiningen clarinettist, Richard Muhlfeld, that rekindled Brahms’s imagination just at the moment when he felt his life’s work was done. A glance at the Gramophone Database reveals that though clarinettists still lead in claiming the two Op. 120 Sonatas as their own, players of the viola (Brahms’s prescribed alternative) are not very far behind. So not surprisingly Kim Kashkashian and Robert Levin are up against formidable competition.

Both play with total commitment. But whereas Kashkashian, with her ingratiatingly mellow tone and sensitively yielding phrasing, seems to meet the 61-year-old composer on his own ground, Levin more often reminded me of the robust young Brahms with a cause still to win. In reflective contexts he shows himself well able to share his partner’s confidences. But even in the comparatively benign Second Sonata (which inexplicably they choose to play first) there are some disproportionate outbursts at the sight of a forte marking, with loss of sheer keyboard refinement – as in his lumpy handling of the rich chordal theme in the second movement’s Trio. The stormier F minor work brings bigger temptations – a situation not helped by what struck me as too forward a placing of the instrument itself.

With such warmly praised rivals as (amongst others) Zukerman-Barenboim, Imai-Vignoles and the young Norwegians Tomter-Andsnes (all of whom also include an extra work) I feel the newcomers’ mere 44 minutes would have been more fairly offered at mid price.

-- Joan Chissell, Gramophone

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Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist. In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable. Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. An uncompromising perfectionist, Brahms destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished. Brahms is often considered both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters, with a highly romantic nature embedded within.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Brahms

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Kim Kashkashian (born August 31, 1952) is an Armenian-American violist. She studied viola with Karen Tuttle and attended high school at Interlochen Center for the Arts. Kashkashian won the 2nd prize at the 1980 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the 1980 ARD International Music Competition in Munich. She has been featured on over 30 albums and performs pieces from both classical and contemporary composers, working among others with Gidon Kremer and Yo-Yo Ma, the Vienna Philharmonic and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Kashkashian currently teaches at the New England Conservatory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Kashkashian

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