BEETHOVEN: THE 10 SONATAS FOR VIOLIN & PIANO - Pamela & Claude Frank

I’d have been impressed by the unity of purpose and style of these performances, I think, even without knowing that Claude and Pamela Frank are a father and daughter team. They’re both meticulous in finding convincing ways to observe all Beethoven’s performance indications. The many places where crescendos lead not to a climax but to a sudden softness, so characteristic of early Beethoven, are played without exaggeration or pedantry, but we can feel the tension and pressure, then the sudden release. The many sforzandos are played according to their context, so they’re not always tremendously forceful, as Argerich and Kremer make them, but can be warmly expressive as in the Adagio of Op. 30 No. 2, or simply displaced stresses, as in the Scherzo from the same work. There are other virtues, too – Claude Frank’s splendidly clear articulation, especially in the bass, which never sounds at all heavy or foggy, and which is helped by a well-defined, fairly close recording. And Pamela Frank, whilst playing with great spirit, contrives always to sound beautiful and to phrase her melodies with classical poise. Kremer’s and Argerich’s recording of these sonatas has, I know, been widely admired, but in many ways I prefer this new version. Certainly, in movements like the barnstorming finale of No. 2, Kremer and Argerich make the Franks sound a touch overcareful; the DG recording has a fuller sound, and in the Adagio movements of the first two sonatas they strike just the right tempo where the Frank duo seem a bit laboured. But Gidon Kremer, for all his violinistic prowess, can’t match the natural grace of Pamela Frank’s phrasing, and the new recording’s less showy character is never dull, because the playing is alive to every facet of the music.'