The three Brahms violin sonatas fit comfortably onto a single CD, as evidenced by the recently reissued Josef Suk survey with Julius Katchen, recorded in 1967 and now available in Decca's Legends series. Last year, the Beethoven sonatas cycle by Wolfgang Schneiderhan and Wilhelm Kempff made a timely reappearance in DG's Originals listings, and it's now been followed up by the Brahms trilogy, with the addition of the scherzo from the F-A-E Sonata. The pianist joining Schneiderhan here is Carl Seemann. Although their overall timings for individual works are broadly comparable to those of Suk and Katchen, Decca doesn't manage to find room for the F-A-E scherzo on a disc running to 68:15 as compared to DG's 71:17.

Stylistically, both violinists take a fascinatingly divergent view of the sonatas, with Schneiderhan being the more robust and impulsive aside Suk's smoother, rounder tone and less dramatic approach. This certainly works well enough in the G major sonata, and even better still in the A major work, where Suk's gorgeous tone and fine-spun legato playing is just about perfect for the opening Allegro amabile movement. But where Suk and Katchen exude contentment and repose, Schneiderhan and Seemann are grappling with bigger ideas, and constantly highlight details and thematic cross-currents in the first two sonatas that seem less well defined in Suk's tastefully executed but less insightful Decca performances.

The real test, of course, is the huge D minor sonata Op. 108. Here, it's Schneiderhan's fiery response to Brahms' taut structures and declamatory motifs that generates the better performance. Decca's transfer is marginally cleaner-sounding than DG's (where some tape-hiss is detectable), but for more penetrating musical concepts, go for Schneiderhan. With their more mellow, autumnal colors, Suk's performances still have much to commend them as well, and for more recent alternatives you might consider Sony's 1990 recordings with Itzhak Perlman and Daniel Barenboim. They combine many of the better aspects of both Schneiderhan and Suk in secure, vital interpretations and a sonorous, expansive recording.

--Michael Jameson