The present live performances with violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt encompassing all three Brahms violin sonatas took place in September, 2002 during the Heimbach Chamber Music Festival, where pianist Vogt serves as artistic director. I suspect that the presence of an audience factors into certain aspects of the interpretations–these include brisk basic tempos, ravishingly tinted soft passages (the G major Op. 78 and A major Op. 100 slow movements), and delicately gauged ensemble give and take (the tricky balances in the D minor Op. 108’s third movement). At the same time, dynamic surges and accelerations occasionally overshoot their goals, causing Tetzlaff to push his vibrato too hard. I also sense impatience in the slow movements, an unwillingness to allow Brahms’ long lines to sink in with the spacious simplicity you hear from Szeryng/Rubinstein and Suk/Katchen. But for sheer inspiration and spontaneous combustion, listen to Tetzlaff/Vogt’s febrile, on-the-edge, and absolutely unfaltering finale to Op. 108–guaranteed to get your heart rate up a few notches!
