BRAHMS & SCHUMANN

After Yuuko Shiokawa and András Schiff recorded three sonatas for violin and piano by Bach, Busoni and Beethoven in 2017 - a "thoughtful and subtly woven program", according to the English magazine Strad - the duo now presents impressive interpretations of Brahms' Violin Sonata No. 1 and Schumann's Violin Sonata No. 2. Brahms' Violin Sonata in G major, known as the "Rain Song Sonata", is interpreted with particular sensitivity and stands in effective contrast to Schumann's sometimes energetically propulsive Sonata in D minor. Shiokawa and Schiff devote themselves with great expressivity to the music of these befriended composers and once again demonstrate their distinctive duo understanding on their third joint recording for ECM's New Series.