Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 121 & Phantasie in C Major, Op. 131

Album review

This album, some of which was recorded live, marks the first concert performance of the young Thai-German violinist Iskandar Widjaja in the hall of the Berlin Philharmonic. Born in Berlin in 1986, Widjaja is a star in Indonesia. Here he is accompanied by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, who has a reliable eye for new talent. A programme dedicated to Robert Schumann with his little-played Phantasie in C Major Op. 131, written in 1853 for violinist Joseph Joachim. The piece was tinkered with first by Joachim himself, and then by Fritz Kreisler, before finally being published in its correct form in 1887 by Clara Schumann and Brahms, and then again in 1960, in a version rather closer to the original. The great work of this programme is the Sonata n° 2 in D Minor Op. 121 which benefits here from the polished playing of Christoph Eschenbach, this time on the piano. A sonata of symphonic dimensions in four movements, it is written in the style of Beethoven's "Kreutzer Sonata", and possesses the latter's depth and breath of the romantic. But don't be fooled: it is all Schumann, and his very best. © François Hudry/Qobuz