A long-standing partnership reaps rich rewards

The Strad Recommends: Alisa Weilerstein: Brahms

THE STRAD RECOMMENDS

The Strad Issue: February 2025

Description: A long-standing partnership reaps rich rewards

Musicians: Alisa Weilerstein (cello) Inon Barnatan (piano)

Works: Brahms: Cello Sonatas nos.1 and 2; Violin Sonata no.1 (arr. Weilerstein/Barnatan)

Catalogue number: PENTATONE PTC5187215

These performances are cooked right through, like an overnight leg of lamb, the seasonings just so, absorbed into the flavour of the meat. The phrasing falls off the bone. In their own notes, Weilerstein and Barnatan tell us of their long partnership in this music, and it shows in every bar, down to their joint transcription of the G major Violin Sonata, where the introspective nature of Brahms’s inspiration would seem to suit the cello even better, even if the violin’s cascading descents, though expertly negotiated, don’t quite sound as though they belong on the cello.

All the same, as Brahms’s op.78, the piece forms an illuminating bridge between the worlds of the two cello sonatas, opp.38 and 99. I had never previously noticed a thematic recollection of the E minor’s first-movement development in the Adagio of the F major – not that it is underlined here. There is no intemperate leap into action to begin the F major, more of a surge of vigour from old bones. You can hear every last inch of the bow in use, too. Barnatan holds nothing back at the climax, nor does he need to, in a studio acoustic that catches Weilerstein’s cello from a favourable eighth-row perspective.

The first movement of the E minor itself sets off with an urgent sense of purpose, a sense further intensified by omitting the exposition repeat. There is nothing twee or neo-Baroque about the Minuet here, but a solid elegance fitting the old-school values of the musicianship on show throughout.

PETER QUANTRILL