CHOPIN: CELLO SONATA; PIANO TRIO; GRAND DUO, REVIEW
By Geoffrey Norris

Daily Telegraph
6:10PM GMT 26 Jan 2010
UK

Young talent: violinist Vilde Frang EMI 6 87742 2, £13.99

The CDs likely to be released in this, Chopin’s bicentenary year
can hardly fail to be weighted in favour of his solo piano music,
since that is the area to which he devoted the bulk of his creative
attention. That fact alone makes this programme of three ensemble
pieces all the more welcome, but, even if there were suddenly to be an
avalanche of discs of the Cello Sonata, the Piano Trio and the Grand
Duo on themes from Meyerbeer’s opera Robert le diable, it would not
diminish the dynamic impact of this one. The young Danish cellist
Andreas Brantelid, currently a member of the BBC’s New Generation
Artists scheme, is joined by the ideally matched Armenian-born pianist
Marianna Shirinyan and, in the Trio, by the Norwegian violinist Vilde
Frang for performances of remarkable flair and exceptional poise.

Why do people find Faure difficult?The Trio, albeit that Chopin
scarcely holds back with the demands of his piano writing, comes
across with discerningly imagined proportion and balance, its melodies
beautifully floated, its instrumental colours subtly blended. The
dance rhythms of the finale leap from the page in playing that has
sinew and delicacy.

Brantelid comes more to the fore in the Sonata and in the Grand
Duo, and, in harmony with Shirinyan, does so with terrific panache
and innate sensibility and with a tone that is both burnished and
malleable. The fact that you can also sometimes hear Brantelid’s
deep intakes of breath somehow strengthens the passion of his
interpretations, which reveal a stylistic insight, elegance and
emotional power to match his striking technical aplomb. This is an
imaginative and fruitful combination of young talents on a disc that
will be relished long after the bicentenary year is over.