Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov And Others
Weber Violin Sonatas And Piano Quartet
(Harmonia Mundi)
There seems to have been an outbreak of Weber recently. In October, I reviewed a CD of the woodwind concertos featuring SCO players on Linn records. In November, I reviewed a new CD recording of his symphonies on Chandos. In the meantime, the SCO and its principals have brought the concertos to the concert hall. And now, in a real find, Harmonia Mundi has issued a disc of his violin sonatas, charming little pieces, allegedly for amateurs; and indeed the violin lines, beautifully played by Isabelle Faust, are not killers. The accompaniments, dazzlingly executed on fortepiano by Alexander Melnikov, are very nippy and definitely not for beginners. The little-known Piano Quartet, in which the players are joined by violist Boris Faust and cellist Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, is terrific, full of classical zest, but spiced at every turn with romantic colouring illustrating the Weber to come. We should hear this in concert: it's a 25-minute cracker.
Michael Tumelty
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article