By Isoa Chapman
Special to the Armenian Mirror-Spectator
DURHAM, N.C. — “Brahms Three Sonatas for Cello and Piano” was issued this year by Blue Griffen Recordings This recent recording of the Brahms Sonatas for Cello and Piano is a stellar addition to an ever-expanding list. Both musicians featured here have won international recognition, the cellist Suren Bagratuni at the prestigious 1986 Tchaikovsky Competition where he was awarded the Silver Medal, while his younger colleague, the pianist Hrant Bagrazyan is a first prize winner of the San Jose International Piano Competition, amongst others.
Suren Bagratuni
From the outset of the E minor, Op. 38 sonata, Bagratuni reaches into the darkest, richest sonorities of the cello favoring long arching lines over intimate moments. His colleague, Bagrazyan provides structural clarity and momentum and ultimately the result is a more expansive take on these works. Bagratuni’s nuanced use of vibrato in the opening speaks to a mood of brooding intimacy without over-sentimentalizing. The Menuetto of the second movement is performed with wonderful poise and elegance by the duo, as Brahms revamps the early dance form. Brahms was known to start his morning routine with some Bach fugue or counterpoint exercise to get things rolling (following a black coffee and cigar, apparently) and in the third movement of this sonata we can hear Brahms pay homage; here, Bagrazyan leads the charge in this torrid fugue that begins the third movement and provides a dramatic counterpoint propelling the music forward with thrust.
Hrant Bagrazyan
Somewhat surprisingly, the Cello Sonata No. 2 was subject to some unfavorable criticism at the time of its writing, the composer Hugo Wolf labeled it ‘underserving of the name of music’ and Arnold Schoenberg recalled its unpopularity at the time of Brahms’s death. These days much is remarked on the works F major tonality and its intertextual relationship to the Third Symphony and the First String Quintet. In this performance, we find a broad and structural approach that renders this reading the spirit of Brahms’ symphonic writing. From the opening piano flourish Bagrazyan provides an orchestral wash of sound maintaining clarity in the moving bass lines, while Bagratuni launches forth with terrific intensity in the heroic opening theme- one senses that both musicians are fully in their element here. The central movement in this sonata is the Adagio Affetuoso, the pacing is natural and never languid, and there is some lovely unending cantabile in the cello coupled with the most sensitive voicing and lyrical musicianship from Bagrazyan.
It was between 1878 and 1879 at the town of Pörtschach on Lake Worth that Brahms wrote the Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 1, Op. 78. He wrote of the work, “The melodies fly so thick here that you have to be careful not to step on one.” The opening of the work marked ‘mezza voce’ exploits the higher register for the cello, and here, Bagratuni captures the most singular singing ‘contralto’ quality as if to evoke the most private inner feelings of the composer. In this most nostalgic and song-like Sonata, Bagrazyan plays with the intuition and empathy of a great lieder-pianist, and has at his fingertips the virtuoso color palette that this emotionally complex work calls for.
This new release from Suren Bagratuni and Hrant Bagrazyan stands apart from many current recordings of the Brahms Sonatas for Piano and Cello in that it evokes a larger Brahmsian soundscape, positing it within the realm of the so-called ‘monumental interpretations’ by Rostropovich/Serkin (DG) or Schiff/Oppitz (Philips). Superbly recorded by Sergei Kvitko of Blue Griffin Recordings, the sound engineering and mastering capture the musical breadth of this wonderful playing.
For more information or purchase, see here.
