Masterclass: Antoine Tamestit on Brahms Viola Sonata op.120 no.1 third and fourth movements

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When pianist Cédric Tiberghien and I came to record the Brahms Sonatas together last year, we talked and rehearsed for hours. We always finished playing later than we had planned, and we wrote down many things about expression, direction and tempo. These conversations helped us dig deep into the music, the notes and the harmony, until we knew every little corner and indication in the score. Knowing it so well meant that we could adapt our sound and timing to our emotions in any given day or moment, and also to different acoustics. It also impacted on how we played each phrase, even if we didn’t always do exactly what we had discussed, and that affected everything that followed…