Gripping Romantic panache from this Japanese duo
The Strad Issue: September 2025
Description: Gripping Romantic panache from this Japanese duo
Musicians: Fumiaki Miura (violin) Nobuyuki Tsujii (piano)
Works: Brahms: Violin Sonata no.1 in G major. Franck: Violin Sonata in A major
Catalogue number: DG 4867641
Pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii opens Franck’s A major Violin Sonata with caressed playing, lyrical and expressive. Violinist Fumiaki Miura in his turn is warm, and draws you in, with a flowing legato and a clear sense of purpose. For all its beguiling charm this performance has dramatic impetus too, as the driving Allegro second movement demonstrates. Miura’s playing is vivid and gripping here, with the questioning interjections quickly resolved as he presses forward. The molto dolce melody rings out beautifully. There is sure musical logic underpinning the many shifts of mood and speed in the third-movement Recitativo-Fantasia, and captivating intimacy in its dolcissimo passages.
An air of happiness prevails in the opening movement of Brahms’s First Violin Sonata, played with great warmth of tone and mostly a light touch, though with intensity where needed. There is certainly heated passion in the central Più andante of the second movement, which offsets the intense singing that surrounds it, and the finale has both delicacy and forthright emotion. The recording is clear and vivid.
TIM HOMFRAY
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