Couplings of Schumann’s first two violin sonatas abound – not forgetting an outstanding one from Kremer and Argerich. The Third in A minor has been less fortunate. So all praise to Kaplan and Kuerti for stretching this disc to almost 70 minutes to include it. Schumann wrote its “Intermezzo” and finale on October 22nd-23rd, 1853, to follow an opening movement and a scherzo from Dietrich and Brahms, respectively, in a surprise sonata for Joachim based on his FAE motto (“frei aber einsam” – “free but lonely”). The two movements with which, only a week later, Schumann replaced those of his young friends proved his last completed musical undertaking before his breakdown.
It’s hard to understand why the work had to wait until 1956 for publication. Admittedly the first movement too patently recalls that of its D minor predecessor. But the scherzo has a splendid swing and the “Intermezzo” a wistful lyrical charm. As for the finale, its never long suppressed high spirits finally overflow in an irresistible, daredevil tribute to the 22-year-old Joachim’s virtuosity. Kaplan and Kuerti capture its every changing mood in the closest accord – except in terms of balance, which too often goes against Kaplan’s Stradivarius.
The violin emerges more favourably in the two familiar, earlier sonatas, especially in the lighter-textured urgency of the A minor work of 1851. Some of the bigger, bolder gestures of its more vehement D minor successor (such as those commanding minims of the first movement’s leading theme) might have benefited from tone a little riper, more full-bodied, than Kaplan’s clean, lean sound. But his playing is as lithe in finger as in mind – and the same goes for Kuerti (there’s a trace, but only a trace, of the synthetic in the actual keyboard reproduction). I particularly enjoyed both artists’ sensitivity in the slow movements, even if their reactions to middle section indications like bewegter and etwas lebhafter might perhaps be thought a little too sudden.
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