Luca Ranieri: Brahms

The Strad Issue: February 2026

Description: Performances high in polish but lacking passion

Musicians: Luca Ranieri (viola) Andrea Trovato (piano)

Works: Brahms: Viola Sonatas: no.1 in F minor, no.2 in E flat major; Scherzo in C minor (from FAE Sonata)

Catalogue number: URANIA LDV14133

Luca Ranieri is principal viola of the RAI Symphony Orchestra, Turin, while also active as a soloist and chamber musician. The programme here inserts Brahms’s Scherzo for the composite ‘FAE’ Violin Sonata (co-arranged by Ranieri and Karl Stierhof) in between the two op.120 Clarinet Sonatas.

This is both a pleasurable and a confounding release. Ranieri has qualities that, especially with this level of consistency, can lie beyond the reach of much higher-profile musicians. His tone is beautifully controlled; there is colouristic variation; phrasing is naturally sculpted; there is never an ugly sound or a vulgar eccentricity. All perfect for Brahms, and yet, improbably, the performances also lack drive, momentum and passion.

There’s little ‘appassionato’ at the start of the F minor Sonata, so that the more relaxed following theme offers meagre contrast. Similarly, the broad second theme of the ‘FAE’ Scherzo is reduced in sweep. The third movement of the F minor needs a more dance-like lift (as per its ‘grazioso’ marking) and the opening theme of the E flat major Sonata’s finale needs more characterisation to sustain the following variations.

There’s no shortage of technique or even musicianship, only character. This is Captain von Trapp before the disruptive arrival of Maria – unquestionably handsome but with his true charm as yet unrealised.

EDWARD BHESANIA