Track Listing

1. Sonata for violin & piano No. 1 in G major ('Regen'), Op. 78: Vivace ma non troppo
2. Sonata for violin & piano No. 1 in G major ('Regen'), Op. 78: Adagio
3. Sonata for violin & piano No. 1 in G major ('Regen'), Op. 78: Allegro molto moderato
4. Sonata for violin & piano No. 2 in A major ('Thun'), Op. 100: Allegro amabile
5. Sonata for violin & piano No. 2 in A major ('Thun'), Op. 100: Andante tranquillo, Vivace
6. Sonata for violin & piano No. 2 in A major ('Thun'), Op. 100: Allegretto grazioso (quasi Andante)
7. Sonata for violin & piano No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108: Allegro
8. Sonata for violin & piano No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108: Adagio
9. Sonata for violin & piano No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108: Un poco presto e con sentimento
10. Sonata for violin & piano No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108: Presto agitato

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #115474 in Music
• Released on: 1998-04-07
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com essential recording
Brahms's violin sonatas--particularly No. 3--contain some of his most personal and expressive music. In fact, they make an excellent introduction to his chamber music in general, being of moderate length and much less fussy than, say, the string quartets. Mutter has become the premier German violinist of her generation, and as her superb recent performance of the Violin Concerto demonstrates, she certainly knows her Brahms. Weissenberg, on the other hand, is a controversial pianist--a brilliant intellectual who sometimes overpowers his music with an excess of vehemence. His partnership with Mutter works well though--the music can take a little extra juice here and there. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews

A great gift
I do not, myself, know much about violin music or violinists; however, I recently gave this CD timidly to a good friend of mine who I respect highly for his musical taste, who is an also an aficionado of violin performance, and he loved it! His remarks were that it is a relatively little known recording, and that it shows Anna-Sophie Mutter at a fresh point of her career, where she still has a very natural and fairly traditional style of playing. He said that for Brahms fans who prefer a more traditional interpretation, it is an excellent listen.

no one plays brahms like...
A-SM. what i love about A-SM is that when you puchase one of her recordings, you know that you're guaranteed to get at least the basics: flawless technique and intonation, amazingly rich, lush sound, beautiful vibrato, etc...but what you can also always count on is her unflagging musicality and musical intelligence. her music always says SOMETHING (even if, god forbid, you don't really care for what she says). apply all of this to the brahms sonatas, and what you get is pure magic. it certainly helps that she is so at home with the music (brahms always seems to fit her like second skin -- her recent recording of the brahms concerto is everything you could ever expect or want of a brahms piece). the only complaint i might have about this cd is that weissenberg seems to have been miked from quite a distance. the violin sings and soars over and beyond the piano, the result being a work for violin with piano accompaniment as opposed to chamber music between the violin and piano. this is unfortunate, as weissenberg's playing is exquisite here. having said that much, this is by far the best recording of the brahms' violin and piano sonatas i've heard.

nimble,uncluttered approach.
a few side by side comparisons of the delightfully impish Scherzo of Sonata NO.3 reveal this partership to be the most nimble and closest to the spirit of the score (marked Presto,though you'd never believe it from Stern,Perlman etc.)
Weissenberg is no slouch,as he has shown from his incredible DG recording of Bach's Italian Concerto and no doubt he had some say in the tempo.