Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Brahms: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-3 (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Brahms: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-3 (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:40 minutes | 1,30 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Decca Music Group Ltd.

Leonidas Kavakos, the “exceptional violinist” (Daily Mail) follows his spectacular Brahms Violin Concerto recording by teaming up with star pianist Yuja Wang – “a prodigious talent, with an astonishing technique” (The Guardian) for the great Brahms Violin Sonatas
Leonidas Kavakos’s third release for Decca makes a perfect supplement to his acclaimed Brahms Violin Concerto disc with Chailly.
‘It’s a long time since there was a new version of this concerto as good as this.’ Andrew Clements, The Guardian (October 2013).
‘There is a rapier-like cut-and-thrust about this performance that recalls the surging adrenaline-charge of Isaac Stern in full flight, with Kavakos emerging as the swashbuckling hero of the hour, taking all technical obstacles in his stride with soaring abandonment.‘ Julian Haylock, Sinfini (October 2013).
For the three sonatas Kavakos – an exclusive Decca artist – teams up with Wang, a former Gramophone Young Artist of the Year.
Their partnership at the 2013 Verbier Festival was much talked about (and broadcast on Medici) and they will be touring these works in April to major European cities.
The F-A-E Scherzo which Brahms contributed to a composite sonata (along with his friends Schumann and Dietrich) will be added as a bonus.
The three violin sonatas were written for Brahms’s muse in all matters violin, Joseph Joachim, who also gave the premiere of the Violin Concerto and contributed its cadenzas.

. . . [Scherzo from FAE-Sonata]: raucous and driven, has Kavakos and Wang in fine fettle, passionate and sonorously adept. The extraordinary violin tone . . . does much to ingratiate the whirlwind piece, much as it will add seamless affection to the formal sonatas themselves. The 1879 Sonata in G Major establishes intimacy as an essential aspect of Yuja Wang’s keyboard, chamber music persona, given that she has heretofore indulged in heady, percussive, and flamboyant Romantic repertoire. After an autumnal, lyrically polished “Vivace ma non troppo” first movement, the atmosphere becomes poignant and palpably ruminative for the “Adagio”. The nicely drawn violin cantilena against Wang’s lulling then insistent block chords blends the rainy-day nostalgia against some passionate, rough-hewn sonorities that rise upwardly and then round off in double stops . . . [3rd movement]: [Kavakos/Wang thoughtful, limpid reading] ranks high for sincere intensity of expression and stylistic fidelity. The 1887 “A Major Sonata, Op. 100”, “Thun,” receives a genial treatment from Kavakos and Wang, the latter of whom enjoys her flourishes and roulades without gratuitous drama, rather sauntering and cavorting with the violin’s inflections . . . The original motif recurs, “Andante ¿ Vivace”, which Kavakos renders with tender love and care . . . [Violin Sonata no. 3]: Kavokos himself keeps a firm hand on his “dynamics”, choosing to extend and soften the melodic line until the whole vanishes in a misty haze of sublimated power . . . The “finale” Brahms marks “6/8 Presto agitato”, and he thunders it forward most passionately. Kavakos and Wang have been waiting for this one. Our principals work up a steady, momentous heat, often galloping and throbbing in potent unison. The cascades and onrushes of intensity belie the composer’s “old bachelor” stereotype of a man resigned to life’s denials. This music resounds with virile desire, a fist’s still threatening the skies. The ingenuous “Wiegenlied”, played as an encore, speaks of Paradise; might it have been regained? –Gary Lemco, Audiophile Audition

. . . Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang approach the music in a generally understated manner, creating an intimacy that reinforces melodic connections with Brahm’s Lieder. Kavakos opts for a subtle use of vibrato and a relatively limited dynamic range. His sweet tone is matched by Wang who is admirably discreet in the more richly scored writing of the Finale in the Sonata No. 3 in D minor, but also achieves a miraculously delicate touch in the “Scherzo” sections of the middle movement of No. 2 in A major. With less recourse to tempo fluctuation within movements than in many interpretations, these performances may seem restrained and almost Classical in outlook. Yet this reticence serves to give greater intensity to those few passages, such as the wonderfully noble ending to No. 1 in G major or the fiery conclusion of the Third in D minor, where both players become more expansive in expression. –Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine

Tracklist:

01. Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Scherzo In C Minor For Violin & Piano (From The FAE-Sonata) (05:39)
02. Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in G, Op.78: 1. Vivace ma non troppo (11:11)
03. Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in G, Op.78: 2. Adagio (07:56)
04. Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in G, Op.78: 3. Allegro molto moderato (08:33)
05. Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Sonata for Violin and Piano No.2 in A, Op.100: 1. Allegro amabile (08:28)
06. Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Sonata for Violin and Piano No.2 in A, Op.100: 2. Andante tranquillo – Vivace – Andante – Vivace di più – Andante vivace (06:04)
07. Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Sonata for Violin and Piano No.2 in A, Op.100: 3. Allegretto grazioso (Quasi andante) (05:24)
08. Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Sonata for Violin and Piano No 3 in D minor, Op.108: 1. Allegro (08:12)
09. Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Sonata for Violin and Piano No 3 in D minor, Op.108: 2. Adagio (04:43)
10. Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Sonata for Violin and Piano No 3 in D minor, Op.108: 3. Un poco presto e con sentimento (02:52)
11. Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Sonata for Violin and Piano No 3 in D minor, Op.108: 4. Presto agitato (05:53)
12. Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang – Wiegenlied (Lullaby), Op.49, No.4 (01:39)

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