Search - Johannes Brahms, Yefim Bronfman :: Brahms: Complete Works for Violin and Piano

Skillful, sensitive readings that need more passion

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 04/24/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Most famous violinists, especially those who like chamber music, eventually get aorund to making a record of the three Brahms sonatas. Nikolaj Znaider is arriving fairly early in his career; he is still a budding star, but on acquaintance with his early CDs and after hearing him in concert, I'm impressed by his sensitivity and musicality.



Here he gives us very laid back versions of all three sonatas. The first begins Vivace, ma non troppo, and Znaider takes the last words ("but not too much") to heart. He's relaxed to a fault, and this tendency remains constant in the two later sonatas. I was hoping that he'd find more passion and intensity for Sonata #3, the most ambitious of Brahms's violin works with piano, but if an;ything Znaider becomes meditative. That's fine in itself, but this music already tends to stick to the same emotional track, and to avoid monotony, the solist needs to find dramatic contraswts where he can. Znaider doesn't try to do that, and in Bronfman he has a piano partner who's customarily low key in chamber music. In short, these are two fine musicians, but Brahms needs less caution and more passion."