Review | Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov masterful in Beethoven’s 10 violin sonatas, their playing shedding new light on composer’s emotional intentions
- Subtlety, crisp articulation, dexterity, masterful bowing and musicality were in evidence from the moment violinist and pianist began their musical marathon
- Over three concerts at the University of Hong Kong, the pair, long-standing chamber music partners, time and again made the right interpretative choices
Maurice Ravel famously said of his own Sonata for violin and piano that both instruments are “essentially incompatible”.
But when German violinist Isabelle Faust and Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov took to the stage of the Grand Hall of the Lee Shau Kee Lecture Centre at the University of Hong Kong to perform the complete cycle of Beethoven’s 10 sonatas for piano and violin over the weekend, the long-standing chamber music partners proved their compatibility of sound and musicality many times over.
Their artistry revealed an array of tonal colour that brought many listeners closer to understanding Beethoven’s emotional intentions.
This was no more apparent than on Friday evening in the three early Op. 12 sonatas that Beethoven dedicated to his teacher Antonio Salieri.
As nods to Mozart and Haydn’s classicism they were superb. Phrasing was tapered and treated with great care by Faust and Melnikov from the very opening Allegro of the first sonata in D, and the subtleties in charm and wit were a delight.
Faust’s crisp and focused articulation was brilliant in the sonata’s Rondo finale, while Melnikov, as cool as a cucumber, poignantly accented the finer nuances of the rhythmic pulse.
