Glossy and gnarly Brahms
Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis are ideal co-soloists, says Helen Wallace
BRAHMS • SCHUMANN
Brahms: Double Concerto; Piano Trio No. 1; Schumann: Violin Concerto – Langsam (arr. Britten)
Joshua Bell (violin), Steven Isserlis (cello), Jeremy Denk (piano); Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Sony 88985321792 76:32 mins
It’s often been said of Brahms that his chamber music was orchestral, and vice versa. Here’s an unconducted Double Concerto transformed into pure chamber music, in which two old friends spar amicably with the lithe support of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. There’s an intriguing, subtly competitive friction between violinist Joshua Bell and cellist Steven Isserlis, the one so glossy and fluent, the latter more gnarly and individual, each audibly inspiring – and often provoking – the other. Just listen to the passionate antiphonal arioso phrases in the Largo, in which Isserlis injects fiery temper into Bell’s sweetly consoling cantabile.
Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis audibly inspire and provoke the other
For all its sombre bluster, this concerto is lightly scored, much of the turbulence generated by the soloists themselves. The Allegro feels like a live performance, tripping lightly, the orchestra piling in with zestful enthusiasm. The weird little salon waltz arrives like a spontaneous improvisation, while the coda has rarely sounded so celestial.
The Langsam from Schumann’s Violin Concerto, arranged by Britten, appears as a heart-catching interlude, its opening aria eloquent in Isserlis’s hands against the limping syncopations of strings.
Isserlis makes a good case for the 1854 version of Brahms’s Op. 8 Piano Trio, written at the height of his infatuation with Clara, and including two significant Lied references, later excised. The Allegro’s baffling fugues and wandering song and dance interludes fall into place in their hands. Jeremy Denk, mercurial in the scherzo, brings out the Adagio’s rapt, visionary strangeness.