First-Rate Dueling Duos

New on the market are two recordings by two different duos, and both of these recordings are first-rate. They can be recommended not only without reservation but with hosannas.The first CD gives us David Chan and Rafael Figueroa. Who are they? Mr. Chan is the concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and Mr. Figueroa is its principal cellist. They are therefore two of the most important musicians in New York. On a given night, you’re apt to leave the Metropolitan Opera House thinking more of a Figueroa solo than of the soprano’s aria.And in May 2006, Messrs. Chan and Figueroa teamed for a concert in Weill Recital Hall. It was a huge success. And this new CD — a studio recording, from Elysium — preserves much of the material from that concert.The repertoire for violin-and-cello duo is not vast, but it contains some fine specimens. (The brothers Renaud and Gautier Capuçon havebeenexploringit.)Dowemiss the presence of a third party — of a piano or a viola? No, not when the composer is especially skillful.And Ravel and Kodály are. They wrote probably the two major pieces in the repertoire, and they are the two major pieces on the Chan/Figueroa disc. Ravel is the earlier composer: His dates are 1875 to 1937, and Kodály’s are 1882 to 1967. But Kodály’s is the earlier piece: He wrote his Duo in 1914, whereas Ravel wrote his Sonata in 1922. The former piece influenced the latter.And it is a marvelous piece, the Ravel Sonata: It is both brilliantly constructed and enjoyable musically. In other words, it’s Ravel. And our musicians give it a worthy treatment.They are extremely complementary, playing as one. (I’m sorry for the cliché, but it’s true.) We spot a key tonal fact in the first movement: They alternate between a lushness and a spareness, or even a rawness. Their Ravel is not a scratchfest — but neither is it too rich.The second movement (Très vif) is properly tense, keeping you on the edge of your seat. The next movement — the slow movement —givesussometypicallybeautiful playing by Mr. Figueroa. And Mr. Chan is no slouch in this department either.When the last movement comes around, it is again edge-of-yourseat time. The music is jaunty and sharply etched, but it is never crude. These are two exceptionally musical fellows.And their technical adeptness can be taken for granted — not just in the recording studio (where anyone can be made to sound like Paganinior Rostropovich), but live and in the flesh.Like its successor, the Kodály Duo is an excellent piece, and Messrs. Chan and Figueroa attack it with what you might call elegant savagery. Throughout the first movement, they are impassioned, thoughtful, and incisive. They employ both delicacy and guts, just as Kodály does.In the middle movement — Adagio — Mr. Figueroa plays a sad, simple tune, beautifully and unaffectedly. This movement has a lulling, rocking quality. But you can’t quite get to sleep: There is an underlying disquiet.And in the closing movement, our guys are playful, precise, and arresting — exciting, in fact. Really, this is playing of a very, very high order.And they end their disc as they ended their Weill Recital Hall affair: with a Handel passacaglia arranged by Johan Halvorsen, a Norwegian violinist and composer (1864-1935). The players are full of soul and resolution. The passacaglia marches along inevitably, and upliftingly.Don’t think you have an interest in music for violin and cello alone? Let this CD convince your otherwise.* * *You surely have an interest in the Brahms violin-and-piano sonatas — they are universally beloved, as they should be. And Yefim Bronfman has committed them to disc with Nikolaj Znaider. Mr. Bronfman, you are likely to be familiar with — he is a major, possibly a historic pianist. Mr. Znaider is rather less well-known, a man in his early 30s, “born in Denmark to Polish-Israeli parents,” as his bio says.That datum tells us something about modern times.If Mr. Bronfman recorded these canonical works with Mr. Znaider because he had confidence in him, that confidence is well placed. Mr. Znaider traverses the sonatas maturely, musically, and satisfyingly. (So does Mr. Bronfman, but that is hardly necessary to say.) I will comment on one movement from each of the three sonatas.The first of the first is one of the most beautiful things in all of music. And it owes something to Beethoven — its opening measures, in particular.These measures are ethereal, transporting, and Messrs. Znaider and Bronfman handle them unerringly. They do the same with the rest of the movement. Their playing is both beautiful and sensible, and that is a fortunate combination. Mr. Bronfman can play the most thunderous and dazzling Liszt. But he also has great purity. And, in this Brahms, he demonstrates the touch of an angel.Serving both musicians well is understatement. Yet they are not too retiring. You know how people say that Brahms is a synthesis of the Classical and the Romantic? Well, the playing here is that way, too.Consider, next, the last movement of the Second Sonata. It begins nobly, in almost hymn-like fashion. Then it grows a little restless, while avoiding hyperactivity. It concludes with all the warmth and openheartedness we want.And how about the third movement of the Third Sonata? (It carries an unusual marking: Un poco presto con sentimento.) This is a tricky one, hard to get right. It ought to be nervous, edgy — but not ridiculously so. And our duo finds just the right spirit.Moreover, they play with extraordinary evenness, as they do throughout this D-minor sonata, and the others as well. There are no lumps in the Znaider/Bronfman porridge — except maybe where Brahms has put them.Rounding out the CD is a standalone piece, the Scherzo in C minor. Thus does the label, RCA Red Seal, entitle the album “Brahms: Complete Works for Violin and Piano.”With Nikolaj Znaider and Yefim Bronfman, you are in good hands. You know they won’t do anything stupid, and that is a rare experience. There are many recordings of the Brahms violin-and-piano sonatas, by many celebrated violinists and pianists. Don’t underestimate this new CD just because it’s new: It ranks among the best.

First-Rate Dueling Duos

First-Rate Dueling Duos

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