Ulf Wallin / Roland Pöntinen JOHANNES BRAHMS The Five Sonatas for Violin & Piano Vol. 1

Asked the question ‘How many sonatas for violin and piano did Johannes Brahms compose?’, many lovers of chamber music would probably answer three, and maybe also add their respective keys and opus numbers. When pressed, a number of them would also remember the so-called F.A.E. Sonata, a collaborative effort by the young Brahms, Albert Dietrich and their mentor Robert Schumann. But very few would probably think of the two Opus 120 sonatas, composed in 1894 for clarinet (or viola) and piano, but a year later published in the composer’s own versions for the violin. As the range of the B flat clarinet goes a fourth lower than that of the violin, Brahms had been forced to make considerable revisions to the clarinet part – which in turned entailed changes in the piano part, and consequently the printing of a new piano score.
The seasoned team of violinist Ulf Wallin and pianist Roland Pöntinen have now decided to record all the Brahms sonatas, and the results are being released on two discs, the first one including the first of the ‘official’ sonatas, No. 1 in G major, Op. 78, the F minor Sonata from Op. 120 and Brahms’s Scherzo from the F.A.E. Sonata. Wallin and Pöntinen round off the programme with transcriptions of two of Brahms’s more lyrical songs.

Pöntinen plays SZYMANOWSKI

Roland Pöntinen’s recital illustrates graphically three distinct sides of Szymanowski’s multifaceted genius. First, a selection from the 22 Mazurkas which are like Chopin seen through a distorting mirror while at the same time reflecting the composer’s love of the Tatra district of his native Poland. Second, his turning away from heavy German influences to an ornate impressionism capturing his devotion to Mediterranean myths and legends (Métopes and Masques). And finally, in the Third Sonata, a close amalgam of influences, notably Scriabin (the more problematic Sonatas Nos 6-10) and Stravinsky. All this is a far cry from Szymanowski’s first style in, say, his Op 1 Preludes or Op 4 Etudes, or in the massive Second Sonata (sufficiently daunting to have alarmed Arthur Rubinstein who gave its world premiere). Here the influences remain but are fragmented into a kaleidoscope of glancing lights and colours, creating ferocious aural and technical demands. Certainly it needs a very special pianist to embrace fully such intricacy, and Pöntinen is more than equal to his task. He is as memorably lucid and evocative in the Sonata’s central Adagio mesto as he is commanding in the finale’s formidably long fugal subject. Try the concluding Vivace assai in Masques and you will hear a total assurance repeated in the Mazurkas – never more so than in the other-wordly quality of Op 62. Piotr Anderszewski’s Award-winning disc of much of the same repertoire (Virgin, 9/05) and Marc-André Hamelin’s complete set of the Mazurkas (Hyperion, 9/03) provide dazzling competition and if Pöntinen is not quite their equal he runs them remarkably close on this finely recorded album. (Bryce Morrison / Gramophone)

Roland Pöntinen INGMAR BERGMAN: MUSIC FROM THE FILMS

Ingmar Bergman (1918- 2007) made fifty films, directed more than 150 theatre productions and wrote several books, but the recurrent thread running through his life was music. He often said that if he hadn't become a director he would have wished to become a conductor, and went so far as to claim that ‘film and music are almost the same thing. They are means of expression and communication that go beyond human wisdom and that touch a person’s emotional centre.’ Bergman’s interest in classical music became evident early on in his career. Music in Darkness (1948) is about a pianist who loses his sight in a shooting accident, To Joy (1950) features a violinist who dreams of a solo career and Summer Interlude (1951) takes place at the Royal Swedish Opera. He admired all who could perform music, reserving his greatest love for pianists, and concert pianists are portrayed in Hour of the Wolf, Face to Face and Autumn Sonata. 

One of Bergman’s favourite Swedish pianists was Roland Pöntinen, who here performs a number of pieces featured in Bergman’s films, by composers including Mozart, Chopin and Schumann. Pöntinen is joined by the Stenhammar Quartet in the second movement of Schumann’s piano quintet, used by Bergman to great effect in the award-winning Fanny and Alexander. Another of the director’s favourite performers, the cellist Torleif Thedéen, also contributes to the project, with the sarabandes from three of Bach’s suites for solo cello

Ulf Wallin / Roland Pöntinen ROBERT SCHUMANN The Violin Sonatas

Robert Schumann's three Sonatas for violin and piano were all composed between 1851 and 1853. They – especially No.3 – have to some extent suffered from the same neglect and incomprehension that has been the fate of other works from this period in the composer's life, only a few years before he died in a mental institution. During the same years a number of other works for the violin saw the light, including the Violin Concerto and the Fantasy for violin and orchestra. The concertante works were written for the violinist Joseph Joachim, but it may have been a letter from Ferdinand David, concert master of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, that provided the initial impulse to compose chamber works for the violin: ‘I am uncommonly fond of your Fantasiestücke for piano and clarinet; why don’t you write something for violin and piano? … How splendid it would be if you could write something of that kind, that your wife and I could play for you.’ Here the performers are Ulf Wallin and Roland Pöntinen, a team who recorded their first disc for BIS in 1991, and whose partnership has been described as 'masterfully cultivated ensemble playing' on website ClassicsToday.com. Wallin's credentials in Schumann must also be regarded as firmly established, after his recently released recording of the violin concerto, the Fantasy and the arrangement for violin of the cello concerto. The reviewer in Daily Telegraph found it 'hard to imagine more sympathetic and insightful performances of these wonderful pieces’, and his colleague on the German website Klassik-Heute agreed, describing Wallin as 'violinistically brilliant and musically perceptive'

Ulf Wallin / Roland Pöntinen FRANZ LISZT Works for Violin and Piano

CDs are sometimes like buses - you wait ages for one and then two come along almost simultaneously. Liszt’s music for violin and piano is pretty obscure and no doubt lovers of Liszt and chamber music were delighted by the release recently of a recital by Voytek Proniewicz (violin) and Wojciech Waleczek (piano) on Naxos. That disc was given by a favourable review by my colleague Philip R. Buttall.

Now, a few months later BIS release a recital, with some repetition of works, by the highly regarded duo of Wallin and Pöntinen. Their previous recordings, which have included Schoenberg, Schumann and Reger, have been very favourably reviewed on this site.
This excellently executed recital commences with the highly impressive and virtustic Grand duo concertant using a theme by violinist Charles-Philippe Lafont (1781-1839). Lafont once came second to Paganini in a competition but died prematurely in an accident in 1839 when a carriage transporting him overturned. This is a splendid opener and full of fun and Hungarian fire. I can imagine it would make an unusual if slightly lengthy encore to a violin sonata concert.
Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth is a lovely romantic, yet wistful piece about an island in the Rhine that Liszt nearly bought. It was the scene of his last holiday with Marie d’Agoult and their three children in 1843 before the couple split up. This work, written forty years after the event, recalls this happy time with a strain of regret. The piece is probably better known for cello and piano and has been reviewed in this form several times on this site. I will certainly be tracking down a recording although I must emphasize the empathy achieved here by Wallin and the echo by Pöntinen.
Epithalam, like the first piece common to the Naxos recital, was written for the wedding of violinist Eduard Reményi (1828-1898). I should think Mr and Mrs Reményi would have been delighted especially if it was played as it is here. The liner-notes, including a lengthy piece on Liszt by Ulf Wallin, are very informative but do not say if Reményi played the premiere or whether Liszt accompanied him. Reményi was to have been the first soloist of Liszt’s Violin Concerto but it was either not written or lost.
Rapsodie hongroise XII illustrates Liszt’s mastery of this medium. This is not a straight transcription of the piano version. The notes use the words “impassioned” and this is very apt with real emotion in evidence as well as delicacy. The playing is simply superb and the renowned top-rate BIS recording quality captures the sound perfectly. On a first-class disc this is one of the standouts.
Elegie No.2 is one of a pair and is dedicated to Liszt’s first biographer Lina Ramann. I did wonder why the first Elegie, present on the Naxos disc wasn’t included. There would have been plenty of room. The first part “dolcissimo amoroso” is gentle and reticent before becoming more exciting. It then reverts to the more peaceful nature of the start.
Romance oubliée has an interesting history. It was originally a song “O pourquois done” written in 1843 but this version owes influences from “Canto religioso” in the second movement of Berlioz’s Harold in Italy; the composers were great friends. Like the song, this is a mournful piece and is here played with great feeling.
La lugubre gondola was originally written for piano, later for violin or cello and piano. When Liszt met his son-in-law Richard Wagner he had a premonition of his death six weeks later. Wagner called Liszt’s works “budding madness” which is interesting considering his own oeuvre. Looking up “lugubre”, I found definitions of doleful, gloomy, mournful and macabre which all seem apt for this piece which has the air of a dream of a coming tragic event. The full emotion of the foretold occasion is played with great sympathy sadly bringing this wonderful disk to a close.

This has been a superb collection to review, one of the best ever and I welcome it very warmly. The music is top class and I write this as one who is familiar only with the well-known Liszt pieces. The playing, recording and notes are also excellent and is another fine achievement by these artists. The result is that I want to hear more of this repertoire and that must surely be the final accolade. (David R. Dunsmore)