Schubert:
- Complete works for violin and piano.
The chamber music partnership of Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien is featured on this 2-CD album containing Schubert’s complete music for violin and piano.
The intelligence and technical capabilities of these performers, and their profound understanding of the music combine in creating some really lovely music.
We get to hear the following:
Sonatina in D major, D384 (Op. posth. 137 No. 1)
Sonatina in A minor, D385 (Op. posth. 137 No. 2)
Sonatina in G minor, D408 (Op. posth. 137 No. 3)
Grand Duo for Violin and Piano in A Major, D574
Rondo brillant in B minor, D895 (Op. 70)
Fantasie in C major for violin and piano, D934
Sei mir gegrüsst! D741 (Rückert)
Performed by Alina Ibragimova (violin) and Cédric Tiberghien (piano)
The first three works, completed in 1816, carry the title ‘Sonatina’, perhaps to appeal to amateur players at the time. But these are highly accomplished works, and they hint at compositions yet to come.
The later Violin Duo in A major, D574 urges the violinist on to greater virtuosic feats, and the Rondo in B minor even more so, with the piano sometimes treated as a surrogate orchestra.
The extensive Fantasy in C major, written in the last year of Schubert’s life, is a masterpiece: the composer’s greatest achievement in this genre, which combines poignancy with sheer joy, as is often the case with Schubert’s music.
Gramophone Magazine wrote:
“These performances exhibit that feeling of spontaneous enjoyment, which animated Ibragimova and Tiberghien’s live Beethoven set from the Wigmore Hall in London. Their playing is constantly graced by small touches of rubato, never very much but enough to give a sense of freedom and individuality”
Here is a video showing a rehearsal with Alina Ibragimova:
And next, here is Ms. Ibragimova in the Sonata and Partita for violin solo by J.S. Bach:
Let me end with Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin concerto in Op.64:
Tags: Alina Ibragimova, Franz Schubert, sonatas, Cédric Tiberghien