Concerts
Isabelle Faust violin, Alexander Melnikov piano
Monday 6th December 2010 at 7.30pm
Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (piano)
Beethoven Sonata no.2 in A major, op.12 no.2
Schumann Sonata no.1 in A minor op.105
Schumann 3 Romanzen Op.94
Bartók Sonata no.2
‘Faust and Melnikov make this music live and breathe more thrillingly than in any recent recording I can recall …’ The Sunday Times
Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov are two of the finest and most versatile musicians of their generation. Their recent recording of the complete Beethoven Sonatas for violin and piano received the French Choc de Classica Award.
On their first visit to MCCS the duo begins with Beethoven’s youthfully ebullient A major sonata, a work featuring much delightful interplay between the two performers. Schumann claimed he composed his A minor sonata at a time when ‘he was very angry with certain people’. Anger or not, it is a passionate work that makes much use of the violin’s lower and middle registers and its last movement is irrepressibly energetic. Schumann’s Three Romances are altogether more serene affairs, demonstrating the composer’s considerable skills as a melodist. The evening finishes with Bartók’s gloriously Hungarian Second Sonata, a work requiring tremendous virtuosity on the part of its performers, particularly as it builds to the frenzied climax of its stunning second movement.
To be recorded by Radio 3 for future broadcast 
Isabelle Faust website - http://www.hazardchase.co.uk/artists/isabelle_faust
Alexander Melnikov website - http://impresariat-simmenauer.de/main.php?l=bio&lang=en&byid=10042