Erich Gruenberg and David Wilde are experienced artists who make a good team, so we can welcome this third disc in their complete series of Beethoven's violin sonatas, which takes in the last three of the ten. This is civilized playing that shows intelligence and sensitivity and offers much to enjoy.
Yet I find myself short of real enthusiasm because everything is a little too smoothly flowing. As I listen to the performance of the G major Sonata, a vivid work if ever there was one, I can't help noting that the first movement is not vigorous enough for Allegro assai, that the minuet which follows is a touch bland (dangerous in this movement which arguably goes on too long) and that the finale does not bound forth with all the physicality and humour it needs. Part of the trouble may lie with a recorded sound that lacks bite and contrast, although otherwise it is agreeable.
The Kreutzer is an even bigger piece, and not only in length; again I think it underpowered in a way that we can at once predict on hearing the initial declamatory statements from both players: we need more tension to be generated to make full sense of the Presto which follows as the first movement's main tempo. There is more charm, too, to be found in the subsequent variation-form movement, while the recording here fails to give enough glow to the pianist's tone. The work that fares best in this recital is the last violin sonata of all, Op. 96 in G major, a 'third-period' work whose gentle persuasiveness brings the most convincing playing from the artists and is better suited to CRD's recording. The only competition on a single disc comes from Heifetz, recorded in 1952: high-powered performances from one of the century's undisputed 'greats'.'