Reto Kuppel, Wolfgang Manz - Paul and Pauline Viardot: Violin Sonatas, Violin Sonatina (2017) CD-Rip

All the music on this Naxos release by violinist Reto Kuppel and pianist Wolfgang Manz receives its world premiere here. Pauline Viardot (1821-1910) was known mostly as a singer and hardly at all as a composer, and the music of her son, Paul Viardot, was conservative even in his youth. This all might seem pretty obscure, but the truth of the matter is that the program has a good deal of freshness and charm. Start right in with the biggest surprise of all, the Violin Sonatina in A minor of Pauline, whom Liszt admired. Sample the opening "Andante." It may be, as the booklet asserts, that this little piece was influenced by the operatic idioms in which Viardot spent much of her time, but whatever the case, it's absolutely entrancing. The three sonatas of her son were written over a long period of time, with the last one coming in 1931 and stylistically reflecting not at all the fact that the world had moved on to entirely different things, musically and otherwise. Paul Viardot, a violinist, was the dedicatee of Gabriel Fauré's Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major, and the works are competent imitations of Fauré's style, with fluent melodies and such devices as quartal harmonies. The last one goes on a bit longer than the rest, but all are at the very least pleasant. Kuppel and Manz's performances are ideal: light, modest in scale, and entirely evocative of the salons where this music would have been heard. Recommended for anyone interested in Pauline Viardot and/or the French violin school.