Prokofiev / Schnittke / Pärt: Music For Violin And Piano – Duo Gazzana

Their last album with works by Schumann, Grieg and Tonu Korvits saw the Gazzana sisters Natascia and Raffaella “achieve the highest levels of instinctive expression”, according to the French daily paper Le Monde, and one could argue that this holds even more true for their new recording with music by Sergei Prokofiev, Arvo Part and Alfred Schnittke. The duo’s reading of Prokofiev’s “Sonata No. 1, op. 80” opens the proceedings with urgency, true to the composer’s intention (Prokofiev famously declared that a particular passage “should sound in such a way that people should jump in their seat…”), but also with lyrical serenity, casting the work’s third movement in a spellbinding light. His “Five Melodies op. 35a” are interpreted with equal conviction, while Part’s “Spiegel im Spiegel”, performed with poise and humility, serves as a thoughtful respite. Concluding the programme is Schnittke’s “Gratulationsrondo” – a celebratory piece that finds the composer circumventing his usual polystylistic ways and instead excelling in a more traditional approach to the classical idiom. Recorded at the Reitstadel, Neumarkt in February 2025, the album was produced by Manfred Eicher.