Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang

Programme to include:

Brahms Sonata No 1 in G major
Brahms Sonata No 2 in A major
Brahms Sonata No 3 in D minor

Acclaimed recording partners Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang perform a rare complete cycle of Brahms’s three sonatas for violin and piano.

For all its formal perfection, Brahms’s chamber music reveals the inner secrets of a troubled soul. And no works do that more expressively than his three violin sonatas; by turns tender, tormented and ardently romantic. Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang bring both freshness and experience to this radiant music.

Brahms is said to have discarded five violin sonatas before he published a single one – so the three that he did compose carry an emotional significance that goes far beyond their chamber scale. These works make a marvellously satisfying trilogy, and in the first of two recitals this season devoted to Brahms’ complete string sonatas, Leonidas Kavakos and his regular recital-partner Yuja Wang have had the inspired idea of playing them all three one programme – as well as recording them for Decca. Bachtrack found “tenderness and a warmth of true Brahmsian depth” when they performed this programme at Verbier.