Beethoven & Brahms: Violin Sonatas

Advantages: A work that changed the way we look at symphonies
Disadvantages: none whatsoever

..., but Beethoven restrains this from happening. The music gets more harmonised in the winds, moving in a rising progression, culminating on a C flat major triad. The music turns agonizingly slow as we approach the recapitulation, that is followed by the famous "wrong" horn note. As the violins tremble on B flat and A flat, a lone horn sounds the first notes of the main theme before the orchestra gives us two strong measures of the dominant seventh. The horn has therefore begun the recapitulation as the strings are still only preparing for it. During rehearsals, Beethoven's pupil Ferdinand Ries exclaimed: "You blasted hornplayer! Don't you know how to count? That sounded terrible!" Beethoven was left furious to Ries for a long time to come. The recapitulation doesn't present anything really significantly different from the exposition, except... Read review

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Advantages: Awesome playing and musicianship. Easy listening.
Disadvantages: Perhaps not for the 'purist' folk music lover.

...In this, their first CD, Roby Lakatos (violin) and his Ensemble (consisting of piano, guitar, cymbalon, double bass, and another violin) take their listeners on an exhilarating journey through a variety of gypsy-inspired musical styles. Their flair, charm and sensitive musicianship are apparent from the first note to the last. Described as the ‘nonconformist of the violin’, Roby Lakatos was born into a family of Hungarian gypsy violin traditions dating back to the time of Beethoven! Being a nonconformist in every sense however, he has taken these traditions and moulded them to achieve his own unique musical voice. The incorporation of a guitar and piano into his gypsy ensemble for instance, are certainly not typical instruments of this genre. This CD, entitled simply ‘Lakatos’, consists of 13 tracks (see below for track listing... Read review

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Advantages: Two outstanding peices of chamber music for an unusual combination of instruments
Disadvantages: On the surface quite contrasting works, listener must be openminded

...procedures, deriving new and original ideas influenced by the chamber music of old masters such as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann. Ligeti was influenced by the music of fellow Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, who once stated that "Every art has the right to strike its roots in the art of a previous age; it not only has the right to but it must stem from it". This makes the pairing of one of Ligeti's finest works with the Brahms Op.40 Trio a very appropriate one. Both outstanding chamber works in their own rights and certainly the two best pieces composed for this unusual combination invented by Brahms, a good recording is essential, but hard to find. There are not that many recordings in existence of these works due to the technical complexity for performers and even acclaimed recordings such as the CD by Perlman, Ashkenazy... Read review

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