Our recording represents our desire to find the freedom to apply the 19th-century expressive tools of flexibility of rhythm and tempo, of expressive legato, portamento and vibrato that have been largely forgotten or perhaps discarded over the course of last century. These tools cannot simply be dusted off and re-implemented. As I argued in my dissertation, working with them requires re-inventing them. Portamento for example was a hotly debated subject throughout the 19th century. There is no single model or example of how to apply it today. The same can be said about vibrato. What we can say with certainty is that in the important German violin methods of Louis Spohr and later Joseph Joachim and Andreas Moser, portamento was named as the first and most important means of expression for string players, and vibrato was described as an ornament. When it comes to flexibility of tempo, we can be sure that the 19th-century concept of tempo was more flexible, and that modifications of tempo were much more frequent than in more modern times, when music making has been increasingly influenced by recordings and exact measurements. We know that Brahms had a particularly free and flexible way of performing his own music. Conductor Max Fiedler, for example, writes in his memoires that Brahms played a kind of rubato that one could not write down. And pianist Fanny Davies wrote that when Brahms played a hairpin (<>), it was as if he was lost in the moment of beauty and could not tear himself away from it. Brahms himself famously refused to give metronome markings, writing to his friend, tenor and conductor Georg Henschel, that he could not find a meaningful relationship between his flesh and blood and such a mechanical instrument, a feeling perhaps inherited from Beethoven. He also wrote that any “sane musician” would take a different tempo every week.

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)

Violin Sonata No. 1 Op. 78 in G Major (1880)

1. [1]  Allegro ma non troppo 10:56

2. [2]  Adagio 7:10

3. [3]  Allegro molto moderato 8:34

Violin Sonata No. 2 Op. 100 in A Major (1887)

4. [4]  Allegro amabile 8:59

5. [5]  Andante tranquillo - Vivace- Andante- Vivace di più- Andante - Vivace 6:53

6. [6]  Allegretto grazioso (quasi andante) 5:53

Violin Sonata No. 3 Op. 108 in D Minor

Seinem Freunde Hans von Bülow gewidmet (1889)

7. [7]  Allegro 8:48

8. [8]  Adagio 4:09

9. [9]  Un poco presto e con sentimento 3:09

[10] Presto agitato 6:25