Search - Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Alexander Melnikov :: Schubert: Sonate D. 574; Rondo Op. 70; Fantasie D. 934

The cream of the crop in Schubert's violin music

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 05/09/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For me, the masterpiece here is the haunting Fantasy in C, D. 934, with its mysterious opening and a slow movement based on the melancholy lied, "Sei mir gegrusst." Having heard a cello transcription done in concert by Pieter Wispelwey, I found it hard to locate a comparable reading until I came upon the duo of Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov. I knew of the Russian pianist as a protege of Richter's, but of the German violinist I knew nothing. They are a lovely pair musically, full of refined liveliness, adroit in finding the hidden emotional half-tones in Schubert's apparently simple writing.



I'm a bit embarrassed that I don't know any of Schubert's violin music; perhaps I just needed to run across readings that were this captivating. Although the Fantasy and the Rondo brilliant were written for a virtuoso duo -- so the Gramophone reviewer states -- their technical demands sound fairly modest to me. I can imagine a talented teenager getting through them with little difficulty. But it takes real musicality to find the poised intensity that lifts these scores to their modestly sublime place in Schubert's output. Having sampled a few other readings, including those by Gidon Kremer and Isaac Stern, I don't think I need to look farther than this lovely CD.



Here's the program: Violin Sonata, D574. Fantasie, D934. Rondo brillant, D895"