This 2024 release by violinist
Yuuko Shiokawa
and pianist
András Schiff
includes two performances recorded in 2015 and 2019, both at the acoustically superb and entirely idiomatic Auditorio Stelio Molo LSI in Lugano, Switzerland. With any label other than
ECM
, one might suspect vault-cleaning, but
cultivates performers and dialogues between performers over long periods in such a way that a release like this one becomes merely a new installment in a longer conversation. The performing relationship of
Shiokawa
and
Schiff
(who are married) on the label goes back to the year 2000, and indeed, the two performances and the two works here are profoundly linked by the backdrop of the complex relationship among
Brahms
,
Robert Schumann
, and
Clara Schumann
.
'
Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
, is known as the
"Regenlied"
("
Rain Song
") sonata because it prominently incorporates a motif from that song, which
had given
Clara
as a present. It is a splendid work with a complexity approaching that in
' final style, and the septuagenarian violinist
feels her way beautifully through the complexities. However, those are balanced with the nostalgic feel of the raindrop motif, which
renders with appropriate evocativeness. The rather rare
Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121
, seems to have influenced the young
, and for a slow movement, it has a limpid set of variations that sounds as though it, too, could be representing raindrops. The performers have a profound mutual understanding, and the listener feels that they have entered an inward realm that is deep and unfathomable. A wonderful Romantic chamber music release. ~ James Manheim