Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Concerto for Violin and Cello, Op. 102 in A Minor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola* in E-Flat Major, K. 364/320d
Leoš Čepický, Michal Kanka (cello)*
Komorní filharmonie Pardubice/Stanislav Vavřínek
rec. 2021, Suk’s Hall, House of Music, Pardubice, Czechia
Nimbus Alliance NI6463 [66]
This new release from Nimbus offers what is for me a highly attractive combination of two favourite double concertos. Last year I recommended an excellent recording of the Sinfonia Concertante on a Mozart disc from Dynamic (review) and previously in 2022, while praising two recordings of the Brahms Double Concerto remastered by HDTT (Francescatti/Fournier/Walter; Oistrakh/Fournier/Galliera), still expressed a preference for my first exposure to the work on a CfP LP, conducted by Kletzki with Ferras and Tortelier. Of course, those three Brahms recordings are all now vintage, so a new favourite digital performance is desirable.
I initially played this disc while a knowledgeable music-loving friend was present and we both increasingly pricked up our ears as we listened, first because it soon became apparent that these are very fine accounts, the partnership of violin and cello exuding joy and exhibiting remarkable homogeneity in both works. Secondly, the engineers have achieved a really bold, open acoustic that has a spacious, concert-hall atmosphere with plenty of air round those soloists and the orchestra.
On revisiting my old favourite recording of the Brahms, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how good is the 1962 HMV analogue sound, recorded in the Kingsway Hall and well remastered for the Testament label, but it has to be said that it’s not a patch on this new recording, which is extraordinarily rich and immediate. On the other hand, while Ferras and Tortelier were of course big personalities and that immediately comes through in their playing, I cannot say that Leoš Čepický and Michal Kanka are in any way dwarfed by their illustrious predecessors – nor is conductor Stanislav Vavřínek in any sense tamped down compared with Paul Kletzki. They are marginally slower in the outer two movement and considerably quicker by a minute in the central Andante but for the most part, the sweetness of their timbres, the agogic freedom of their phrasing and the unity of their purpose are such as to render any comparisons of timings otiose; this performance really hangs together. However, its core is of course that yearning middle movement and even if I appreciate that Brahms’ marking is Andante rather than Adagio, I could wish for just a little more breadth in their execution of that flowing first theme, especially as they are markedly more indulgent in their treatment of the arpeggios and modulations of the second subject; Ferras and Tortelier find more poise in it, whereas Čepický and Kanka are more passionately urgent. Nonetheless, the beauty of their playing, especially in the gentle coda, is wholly convincing. The goblin dance finale is splendidly emphatic and full-blooded.
A major point of interest in the Mozart here is that the cello plays the part originally notated in D major for a viola tuned scordatura to (i.e. a semitone up, such that it actually sounds in E♭ major), without octave transposition. The darker, mellower sound of the cello comes as a refreshing alternative to the usual, slightly wirier viola. Although it is obviously playing mostly in its upper register, its string tone lends a new gravitas and even a melancholy which is most engaging. As the notes observe, “This work is expansive and noble in character” and the cello is one of the noblest of instruments, thus as well suited as the viola to its affect. The brief, brilliant, coda to the sonata-form first movement sees Čepický and Kanka playing in complete harmony. The way they in turn lean into the plangent melody of the Andante is deeply moving; it is one of Mozart’s most sombre and touching tunes. The Presto finale trips along joyously.
Vavřínek’s accompaniment is discreet, sensitive and dynamically highly reactive, advancing and receding – sonically, as it were – with the grace of a dancing partner, always leaving the soloists prominent but supported. The sheer verve and attack of the orchestral playing speak for the conductor’s ability to galvanise his players, although he is also sometimes a little more restrained than Massimo Belli with the Nuova Orchestra Ferruccio Busoni in the violin/viola version and the resultant elegance is wholly satisfying.
Neither Belli’s nor this new release will necessarily replace established favourite recordings such as Karl Böhm’s lush and lovely mid-60s recording with Thomas Brandis and Giuseppe Cappone but that is half a century old and modern digital accounts surely have something fresh to say. I shall keep this recording along with the aforementioned violin and viola coupling to be played when I fancy hearing this double concerto played “with a twist”.
Ralph Moore
Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
NB: release date: 2nd Jan 2026
