It was Schumann's idea that he, Brahms and Albert Dietrich should collaborate on violin sonata for the great violinist Joseph Joachim. The result remained unpublished until 1935, and only Brahms's Scherzo is at all cherished today. Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov (playing an 1875 Bösendorfer) make a strong case for the work as a whole, though even their impassioned advocacy can't quite save Dietrich's opening movement from sounding long- winded. In Brahms's Second and Third Violin Sonatas, the players' sound world may be a little too muscularly lean for some tastes. Still, the musical argument is always lucid.
Brahms: Volin Sonatas; F.A.E. Sonata/Faust, Melnikov | Album Review
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