Brahms/Schumann Chamber Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms
Label: Classical
Magazine Review Date: 1/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 65
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: SK68249

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Anner Bylsma, Cello Johannes Brahms, Composer Lambert Orkis, Piano |
Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Anner Bylsma, Cello Johannes Brahms, Composer Lambert Orkis, Piano |
(5) Stücke im Volkston |
Robert Schumann, Composer
Anner Bylsma, Cello Lambert Orkis, Piano Robert Schumann, Composer |
Author: Joan Chissell
First, the instruments themselves, both from Washington’s Smithsonian Museum – the legendary Stradivarius once owned by the great Belgian cellist, Adrien-Francois Servais, and the Steinway concert grand used by Paderewski throughout his 1892-3 American tour. Their immediately ear-catching sonority is reproduced with exemplary clarity: the 20-bit technology used for this “high definition sound” even picks up Bylsma’s every intake of breath at moments of heightened intensity, and there’s no shortage of those.
That said, I suspect there has never been a real love-affair between Bylsma and Brahms, such as he admits to having enjoyed (in an idiosyncratic introductory note) with romantics like Schumann and Liszt. In other words, it’s the classical Brahms he salutes here rather than interposing cajolings of his own between composer and listener.
I enjoyed the E minor Sonata for its unflaggingly strong and purposeful sense of direction, and the close interplay of both instruments in revealing so many subtleties of craftsmanship. And with what magical shafts of light Orkis illumines texture that can so easily emerge clotted. Only in the (at times) almost orchestral vehemence of the keyboard contribution to the F major Sonata’s opening movement does his large concert grand occasionally dominate. Its rapt Adagio, though of intimate refinement, is surely marginally too fast for its affettuoso to speak as it can. The trio of the Scherzo in its turn confirmed an earlier suspicion that Brahms’s warm melodies sometimes call for more vibrato than Bylsma is willing to concede. And should the finale, although admittedly markedalla breve, allegro molto, really be dismissed in a mere three-and-a-half minutes?
In compensation, the disc brings the bonus of Schumann’s endearing Funf Stucke im Volkston, where both of these distinguished artists allow fantasy its full, free rein.'
That said, I suspect there has never been a real love-affair between Bylsma and Brahms, such as he admits to having enjoyed (in an idiosyncratic introductory note) with romantics like Schumann and Liszt. In other words, it’s the classical Brahms he salutes here rather than interposing cajolings of his own between composer and listener.
I enjoyed the E minor Sonata for its unflaggingly strong and purposeful sense of direction, and the close interplay of both instruments in revealing so many subtleties of craftsmanship. And with what magical shafts of light Orkis illumines texture that can so easily emerge clotted. Only in the (at times) almost orchestral vehemence of the keyboard contribution to the F major Sonata’s opening movement does his large concert grand occasionally dominate. Its rapt Adagio, though of intimate refinement, is surely marginally too fast for its affettuoso to speak as it can. The trio of the Scherzo in its turn confirmed an earlier suspicion that Brahms’s warm melodies sometimes call for more vibrato than Bylsma is willing to concede. And should the finale, although admittedly marked
In compensation, the disc brings the bonus of Schumann’s endearing Funf Stucke im Volkston, where both of these distinguished artists allow fantasy its full, free rein.'
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.

Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.