Virtually half a century of French violin music – and what a gulf between the clean-cut classicism of Saint-Saens’s 1885 Sonata and the introspective fervour of the early (1932) Messiaen Theme et Variations! Yet some connecting threads can still be detected between the four works here – the polytonality in the Milhaud (1917) and the Ravel (1927); the perpetuum mobile finales of the Saint-Saens and the Ravel and the madcap Vif of the Milhaud; the piano’s deliciously exotic arpeggiated harmonies in the Milhaud and its rapturous chords at the end of the Messiaen.
For me, the gem of this disc by a duo for whom I have a great admiration is Milhaud’s Second Sonata, more endearingly played in its seductive opening and its slow movement’s lovely cantilena than I have ever heard, and its two quick movements full of a wild energy. Ravel’s Sonata, less coolly treated than by some, is given affectionate violin tone. The piano part of the vigorous finale has links with Tzigane, written at much the same time, as the “Blues” movement is reminiscent of the Chinese teapot in the equally contemporary L’enfant et les sortileges. In this, van Keulen puts rather too much pressure on the bluesy portamentos to notes: a close study of Grappelli should be a requisite for all who perform this movement.
The Saint-Saens Sonata is often played too strenuously: this team, though warm-hearted, capture its classical restraint. Van Keulen’s purity of tone is attractive in the Adagio section (which elsewhere can become too sugary), and particularly striking is her delicate spiccato in the scherzo-like Allegro moderato and her dazzling precision of bow and finger in the finale: Brautigam is at ease in the spectacularly virtuosic piano part, though the otherwise admirable recording does not allow him the crystal clarity that made the Melodiya/Cadenza LP performance (nla) by Igor Oistrakh and his wife so marvellous. But this is certainly a disc to be warmly welcomed.'