MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Plain text for smartphones & printers


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

Support us financially by purchasing this from

Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38 (1862-65) [26:51]
Trio in A minor for clarinet, piano and cello, Op. 114 (1891) [25.27]
Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99 (1886) [29:00]
Paul Watkins (cello); Ian Brown (piano); Michael Collins (clarinet)
rec. 12-14 June 2013, Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, England. DDD
Notes in English, German, French.
CHANDOS CHAN10825 [81:20]

This is one of those rare discs that surprises as much as it delights. It has been a long time since I last listened to Brahms' cello sonatas so intently and with so much enjoyment. Paul Watkins and Ian Brown commanded my attention, not with declamatory statements but by making me complicit in an act of discovery. This is familiar music, yet suddenly new. I didn't want to make comparisons to Rostropovich/Serkin or Isserlis/Hough or any other duo. I wanted to hear how the next phrase would sound, how Watkins would respond to Brown's unexpectedly light touch here, how Brown would respond to Watkins' sudden outpouring of tone there. They kept me on the edge of my seat and they kept me smiling.

There are many great performances of these sonatas, but I cannot recall a set of such flexibility and nuance or of such generous interplay between equals. Watkins and Brown take their time. Nothing is rushed. Everything is expressive. The first movement of the first sonata, often a single outpouring, here takes a more variegated course through its 14 minutes. The second movement dances lightly, equal parts rakish charms and stately grace. The third movement is perhaps a little less robust than usual, but gains from Watkins' and Brown's subtlety.

The second sonata is also less demonstratively emotional than I am used to hearing or perhaps less consistently demonstrative. The first and third movements may be a shade deliberate, but the deliberation allows for shading that is so much more interesting than speed and volume. The second movement is ravishing and the finale radiates joy.

Interposed between the two sonatas, Brahms' Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano is an unusual and generous coupling. The singularity of vision among the three musicians is utterly compelling. Listening to these four movements is like eavesdropping on a long conversation between old friends. There is intimacy, whimsy, a touch of sadness and, in the fourth movement, some contention, as cello, clarinet and piano talk to and over each other. Michael Collins' gorgeous tone and eloquent contribution enhance this disc's already considerable attractions.

The acoustic of Potton Hall is captured beautifully by the Chandos sound engineer Jonathan Cooper. I often find that chamber music recordings that sound wonderful over speakers are uncomfortably close when heard through headphones, or that recordings that sound naturally through headphones become diffuse on the bigger rig. This recording sounds ideally intimate whichever way you listen.

Chandos has lavished its typical care on presentation, with a lengthy and helpful liner-note by Calum MacDonald interspersed in translation with photographs of the artists. I like the cover photo too. It reflects the performances. It is Vienna — old Vienna, with cobblestone streets. Today's Vienna, graffiti-tagged and on the move. This is the Brahms Watkins, Brown and Collins give us: an old master, sounding fresher than ever.

Tim Perry