The old adage “opposites attract” applies to the pairing of two Oehms labelmates in Beethoven’s Op. 30 sonatas. As a Beethoven player, pianist Alfredo Perl’s mellow sonority and suave lyricism contrast to violinist Benjamin Schmid’s edgier temperament and occasional tonal rawness. You notice this in passages where material passes back and forth between instruments, as in the A major Op. 30 No. 1 sonata’s variation movement, the C minor Op. 30 No. 2’s first-movement canonic sequences, and in the G major Op. 30 No. 3’s bantering 16th notes. Yet the performers’ clean and flexible ensemble work reflects more than amicable co-existence, if not quite matching the dynamically charged unanimity Augustin Dumay and Maria João Pires achieve in their extraordinary Beethoven cycle for DG. Collectors seeking all three Op. 30 works on a single disc can’t do better than this excellently engineered, modestly priced release.
