Time remains kind to Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax’s 1984 Brahms cello sonatas, from RCA’s warm, intimate sonics to each player’s impeccable technique and sensitive musicianship. The main question to collectors concerns how this release compares to the duo’s Sony remakes. While Sony’s engineering is not so alluring as RCA’s, both Ma and Ax dig into the faster movements with more dynamic ferocity, sharper accents, and grander clarification of Brahms’ cross-rhythmic effects. Ma’s soft playing displays greater tonal variety in the remakes, particularly in the F major sonata’s slow movement, and the Sony release also includes Brahms’ G major Violin Sonata arranged for cello (originally released as filler for Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with Ax, see my review by clicking Q390 in Search Reviews). These considerations, however, take nothing away from the earlier versions’ gorgeous, mellower virtues, which complement the intensity and nervous energy marking the Rostropovich/Serkin Brahms Sonata collaborations released around the same time. RCA’s improved 24-bit remastering further fuels my enthusiastic recommendation. [6/21/2004]
