Performing together for the first time as a duo at Carnegie Hall, Leonidas Kavakos and Daniil Trifonov crafted a recital that alternated Classical and Romantic masterpieces with a pair of 20th-century works, each offering a distinct musical response to an era of upheaval.
The evening started with Beethoven’s Violin Sonata no. 4, Op. 23, a restless and fiery work that stands apart from the more lyrical violin sonatas that preceded it. Composed alongside the sunnier Sonata no. 5, it reflects Beethoven’s growing structural and expressive ambitions, its abrupt contrasts and jagged phrasing pushing beyond the Classical framework. Kavakos and Trifonov approached the score rather tentatively. At first, their phrasing did not always fully align, though they ultimately succeeded in capturing the work’s intensity and structural innovations. The first movement’s agitation was effectively shaped, while the Andante scherzoso benefited from their nuanced touch, its playful yet shadowy character well defined. The finale’s breathless pace and surging momentum brought a sense of drive, with Trifonov’s fleet passagework enhancing the movement’s energy.
For a composer who often expressed dissatisfaction with writing for solo strings, Poulenc’s Violin Sonata stands as a remarkable achievement. Dedicated to the memory of Federico García Lorca, the poet executed during the Spanish Civil War, the score channels grief and fury in the outer movements while reserving the central one for a poignant lament. Kavakos and Trifonov navigated the score’s mercurial shifts with great sensitivity to its stark contrasts – wry wit and deep melancholy, poised elegance and sudden volatility, classical transparency and modern harmonic daring.
The recital’s high point was a performance marked by subtlety and deep mutual understanding of Brahms’ Violin Sonata no. 1. Every phrase felt organically shaped, with the interpreters never seeking grandeur but allowing Brahms’ introspective warmth to shine. The Vivace ma non troppo unfolded with fluid majesty, Kavakos’s silken bowing lending warmth and lyricism, while Trifonov’s phrasing remained elastic yet delicately controlled. If there was a drawback, it lay in the tempi – the interpreters stretched the ma non troppo to the point where the contrast between the first two movements felt insufficient. In the Adagio, the sonata’s emotional core, the violin’s intense and eloquent line floated above the piano’s luminous accompaniment, tender yet crystalline. Finally, in the Allegro molto moderato, Brahms’ thematic material from Regenlied (Rain Song) shimmered with nostalgia, while multiple melancholic undercurrents emerged naturally. The final ascent faded into an exquisitely delicate hush.
After Brahms, Bartók’s more episodic, folk-driven Rhapsody no. 1 felt somewhat anticlimactic. The piece draws from the Hungarian verbunkos tradition – structured in the customary slow–fast (lassú–friss) format – but also evokes other Eastern European folkloric patterns. Yet in this performance, Kavakos and Trifonov smoothed over the music’s more biting rhythmic edges, taming the wildness rather than reveling in its rugged roots. The jagged syncopations of the lassú felt unusually polished, while the friss, which should surge forward with unrestrained vigor, was somewhat cautious. Kavakos’ burnished tone and precision, admirable in many contexts, here softened the work’s sharp contours, while Trifonov’s accompaniment lacked some of the percussive drive that Bartók’s folk-inspired piano writing demands. The work’s improvisatory spirit felt restrained, its characteristic fiddler’s flourishes only partially conveying a sense of spontaneity – dampening, rather than unleashing, the raw energy that defines this music.
Through its nuances and contrasts, the recital showcased the collaboration of two distinct musical personalities. Certainly, other corners of the repertoire could provide further opportunities to deepen their artistic synergy. Their encore – the Andantino from Schubert’s Violin Sonata in A major, D.574 – offered a subtle hint of where that exploration might lead.
