• In their first joint album, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and her protege, the new generation Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrández, have recorded Brahms’s Double Concerto (Sony) – a work full of turbulent, hard-won joy – with the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Manfred Honeck. Brahms composed this concerto (his last orchestral work) for violin, cello and orchestra in part to renew a friendship, which had slightly cooled, with the violinist Joseph Joachim. The original cellist, Robert Hausmann, was part of Brahms’s circle and a regular chamber music colleague.
Mutter, Ferrández and co give a performance of heft and exuberance, the soloists powerfully lyrical, the supporting forces alert to the score’s details. For the impassioned piano trio by Brahms’s adored friend Clara Schumann, cellist and violinist are joined by Mutter’s long-term duo partner, pianist Lambert Orkis. The rewards of friendship ring out.
