Arthur Grumiaux - Fauré, Franck: Violin Sonatas (1990)

Faure-lovers have long prayed for reissue of the two sonatas from Grumiaux and Paul Crossley. And they won't be disappointed. The sound itself is pleasing. And there is a radiance in the playing suggesting an unerring understanding of structure and style that somehow goes hand in hand with the joyous spontaneity of new discovery. The hyper-sensitive suppleness of Grumiaux's shading and phrasing is a particular delight, as is his awareness that just as much of the musical message comes from the piano—particularly in the Second Sonata. As for Crossley, not for nothing has he come to be recognized as one of this country's most dedicated Faure specialists. It would certainly be difficult to over-praise the subtlety of the two artists' interplay in both works.

Incidentally, their immediacy of response often finds outlet in a slightly faster tempo than that of their rivals, not least in both slow movements, where they rise more urgently to moments of heightened excitement (perhaps even too urgently in the Andante of the Second Sonata at the passage marked sostenuto introduced at 1'35'' in track 6). But these performances remain my own favourites of the four couplings. And despite the slightly plummier-sounding reproduction of Gyorgy Sebok's piano, I also found much pleasure in the open-hearted warmth brought by both artists to the Franck Sonata, where I had the impression that Grumiaux himself might have put aside a silken Strad in favour of a throatier Guarnerius. -- Joan Chissell