CD ECM Records Carolin Widmann - Robert Schumann: The Violin Sonatas

2008

Carolin Widmann - vioara
Denes Varjon - pian

The German-Hungarian duo of two accomplished and stylistically informed young musicians gives its ECM debut with a gripping rendering of Schumann’s three violin sonatas. Written in the difficult last years of the composer’s life, the demanding works mirror his existential conflicts in a fascinating way. While the first two sonatas are quite frequently heard on the concert platform, the third one was held back by Clara Schumann after her husband’s death and was only published in a reliable edition a few years ago. The vivid interpretations, recorded in the great acoustics of Lugano radio studio are marked by an immense array of tonal hues and extraordinary ensemble qualities.

***

Gramophone - Critic’s Choice
International Record Review - Outstanding
Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik - Bestenliste 4/2008
Stereo - CD des Monats
Ensemble- Die 5-Sterne-Aufnahme
Musik & Theater - Meilenstein

Their imaginative, wide-ranging variations of tone colour unlock the music’s romantic, atmospheric potential, and their command of genuine rubato – passionate, unimpeded forward motion followed by lingering backward glances – gives the sonatas an expressive flexibility that’s surely authentic. … Várjon and Widmann are entirely persuasive. Whether or not you know the music well, you’ll be enthralled and delighted.
Duncan Druce, Gramophone

To make such an utterly compelling case for music that has lain on the margins of the repertoire is a remarkable achievement, but that’s just what Carolin Widmann and Dénes Várjon achieve here. They do so without any sense of special pleading – these are just two outstanding artists delivering performances that are the most convincing and eloquent I have ever encountered of this music. … This is magnificent advocacy on behalf of three neglected words by one of the masters of the Romantic era, works that are revealed, finally, to be nothing less than hidden masterpieces in the hands of these players. This disc will surely earn many converts to the Schumann violin sonatas. … Very warmly recommended.
Nigel Simeone, International Record Review

These constantly sharp-witted performances with Dénes Várjon are now among the best available on disc, ranking alongside the versions by Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich. Unlike that stellar partnership, though, Widmann and her pianist include The Third Violin Sonata as well … It’s more uneven than its predecessors … but Widmann and Várjon show that the best of it is as buoyantly original as anything in the earlier works. Every bar in both of those seems freshly moulded in their performances, as if Schumann had rolled back the years to the surging lyricism of two decades before.
Andrew Clements, The Guardian

Schumann’s violin sonatas, written at the end of his life… are fascinating pieces, unfairly neglected in the concert hall, and it is bracing to hear them played together so insightfully here. … The ardent disc, confirming the works as canonical, is … one to treasure.
Paul Driver, Sunday Times