Faust/Mahler CO/Harding
(Harmonia Mundi)
Apart from the fact Isabelle Faust leads the sextet of strings in Op 36, as well as being soloist in the Violin Concerto, the reasons for pairing these two works by Brahms, composed 13 years apart, remain rather tenuous. The sleeve notes connect them via Joseph Joachim, the violinist for whom Brahms wrote his concerto and who was a constant source of advice on string matters, but the same logic could apply to much of the chamber music. In any case, Faust plays down the Joachim connection in the concerto by opting to play not his own familiar cadenza but the one by Busoni, which is constantly underpinned by the timpani. Her performance is wonderfully proportioned, though, never grandiose nor unnecessarily rhetorical, with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra supplying perfectly scaled support. Those who like their Brahms bold and beefy may not care for this performance; those who prefer it expressively searching and introspective should love it, with the bonus of the delicate and deft account of the Sextet.
Leslie Bega Maria Sharapova Lindsay Price Zoe Saldana Rachel Perry
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