Johannes Brahms: Complete Violin Sonatas – Yulia Berinskaya

Brahms wrote Sonatas for violin and piano only in his mature age, even though he did participate in a collectively composed Sonata, known as the F.A.E. Sonata, in his youth. The three great Violin Sonatas, recorded in this exquisite Da Vinci Classics production, all display connections with the world of vocal music. Arguably, Brahms conceived the violin as a quintessentially “vocal instrument”, even though passages entirely idiomatic for the violin are found everywhere – a notable example is the use of bariolage in the third Sonata. Still, references to vocal works abound – for instance in the quotations from Brahms’ own Lieder, frequently embodying extramusical content, in the form of homages to friends with whom a “secret language” of hidden allusions was employed. Nostalgia, passion, tenderness, longing, compassion: the full gamut of the human emotions is played here, and offered by artists Yulia Berinskaya and Alessandra Maria Ammara.