These top-flight soloists, well established as a duo, have returned to Brahms’s three violin sonatas which they first recorded live in 2002. Written within the space of 10 years (1878-88) with his violinist friend Joseph Joachim in mind, each work has a questing lyricism, vividly captured here. Christian Tetzlaff’s distinctive, quicksilver playing, capable of extreme pianissimo, suits the intensity and introspection in each: Op 78 in G major with its melancholic mood swings, the breathless fragility of Op 100 in A major and the restlessness of Op 108 in D minor. The performances are agile, airborne, refreshingly unpredictable and alive with exhilarating freedom.
