Those looking for
a complete set of Schubert’s works for
violin and piano can be assured of variety,
particularly from patrician fiddlers.
Recorded late in his career Isaac Stern
left a box with Barenboim on Sony, as
did – rather more recommendably – Szymon
Goldberg with Radu Lupu (Decca). And
now here comes this ex-Dorian project,
licensed to Brilliant Classics, which
pairs Jaime Laredo with Stephanie Brown;
salutary to be reminded that this set
is already fifteen years old.
I once saw an American
criticism of Laredo’s playing here,
characterised as aggressive and lacking
in subtlety. I have to say it’s not
a view I share to any appreciable degree,
though in this repertoire I would, it’s
true, turn first to Grumiaux (in the
Sonatina and the Duo with Castagnone
or the remakes with Crossley, if you
can find the latter that is) or to the
elderly but still affecting Goldberg.
Laredo and Brown adopt a relaxed tempo
in much of their playing, not least
the Allegro molto of D384 but the balance
between instruments is good and they
are both attuned in matters of sensibility
to the works’ lyrical simplicity. Laredo
is perhaps guilty of over-sophisticated
phrasing in the Andante of the D major,
accenting and highlighting phrases in
the finale just a touch too much as
well. But the A minor is bold and forthright
and if there’s a suspicion of harshness
it’s ameliorated by the sedate and hymnal
delicacy of their slow movement. If
aggressive attack is a fault perhaps
one can find a little in the roughness
in Laredo’s forte attacks in the G minor
but the Minuetto is nicely buoyant and
the finale is good if rather sedate.
They meet the challenges
of the Duo with discreet expressivity
though there are one or two moments
when Laredo is just a touch too distantly
balanced and the accompanying figures
tend to lose their potency but his colouration
in the Andantino is impressive. The
Fantasy is an exceptionally difficult
work to gauge successfully – its mood,
the balance between instruments and
the sense of narrative can all cause
insurmountable and sometimes almost
immediate problems if not realised with
the most acute perception. The Laredo-Brown
partnership can’t quite probe the more
intimate and refined moments as can
the Goldberg-Lupu duo but theirs is
otherwise an attractive reading as is
their bristly and concertante Rondo
– one of Schubert’s most unbuttoned
and swaggering works in the genre.
There are brief but
cogent notes from Dennis Rooney and
if you will doubtless find rather greater
rewards with some of the other partnerships
I’ve mentioned, I do think Laredo and
Brown more than worth a listen. It’s
good to see their set reissued in this
inexpensive and musicianly box.
Jonathan Woolf
Jaime Laredo (violin) 
