Five Sonatas For Violin & Piano Vol.2

Ulf Wallin (violin) & Roland Pöntinen (piano)

Ulf Wallin and Roland Pöntinen made their first duo-recording for BIS in 1991 and have released acclaimed recital discs ranging from Schumann and Liszt to Alfred Schnittke, by way of Schoenberg and Hindemith. With the present disc they bring their most recent project to a close: a recording of all the works by Johannes Brahms for violin and piano. These include not only the three well-known and -loved numbered violin sonatas, but also the Scherzo from the so-called F.A.E. Sonata and the composer’s own violin versions of the two sonatas for clarinet and piano. Wallin and Pöntinen open the present disc with Sonata No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 120, composed in 1894 for clarinet and transcribed for the violin a year later. As the clarinet part extends further down than the lowest note on the violin, Brahms made considerable revisions to the clarinet part, which entailed changes in the piano part, and consequently the printing of a new piano score. This is followed by the second and third violin sonatas, in A major and D minor respectively. Both works were composed during the summer of 1886 in Thun in Switzerland and are clearly related, even though they inhabit completely different expressive worlds.

Brahms:
 Clarinet Sonata No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 120 No. 2
 Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100
 Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108

"Wallin and Pöntinen tend to favour spacious tempos...Such broad pacing allows the players time to highlight and savour details as well as to be scrupulous in their attention to clean articulation and rhythmic clarity…The recording quality is ideally balanced and most flattering to both musicians.
Gramophone Magazine - February 2020

"Richly coloured playing in the second volume from a terrific duo...Wallin is sweeping and elegiac, gentle and confidential ...playing of exuberant melodic expression."
The Strad - February 2020

"...deze ontroerende uitvoering heeft precies de goede balans en akoestiek en creëert een aangenaam gevoel van nabijheid."
Luister Magazine 746 - Luister TIEN