Familiar and unfamiliar

Abstract

This batch of recordings consists of albums almost entirely devoted to frequently performed and well-known works by the most beloved composers of the Western canon. The success of any new album featuring classical ‘masterworks’ depends to a large degree on whether the performers have something new or unusual to say about the repertory. This will ultimately determine whether the recording will be of interest to music lovers whose access to these works includes recordings both historical and contemporary by the most lionized performers of the past 100 years. The album Johannes Brahms: Viola sonatas op.120, Violin sonata op.108 (Pennine Records, issued 2020) featuring violinist/violist David Milsom and pianist Jonathan Gooing represents a valuable addition to the recorded catalogue. Milsom, an important scholar in the field of 19th-century performance practice, proposes in his liner notes that the album is ‘a creative interface between [the] relatively new research and performance field of “romantic” practices, and the use of modern instruments’. In recent years the combined study of historical texts and early recordings has led to new insights into the performance practices of the 19th century, specifically regarding the use of tempo modification, portamento and arpeggiation. Milsom’s scholarship—alongside that of Clive Brown, Anna Scott and others—has been instrumental in developing these ideas in the context of performing Brahms’s music. Putting such scholarship into practice involves not just academic rigour but also adventurous and creative music-making of the kind which was pervasive in Brahms’s own musical circles.