Capuçon/Angelich - Brahms Cello Sonatas, Barbican

French cellist Gautier Capuçon, makes his debut on the Barbican stage after some very successful concerts at the smaller, more intimate Wigmore Hall in the past few years. A keen player of chamber music, he performs regularly with his older brother, violinist Renaud Capuçon, and his partner in tonight’s concert, the US born pianist, Nicholas Angelich.
Johannes Brahms is a firm favourite of all three. They have recorded the complete Brahms trios together, and the three piano quartets with the viola player, Gérard Caussé. Here cellist and pianist play Brahms’s two cello sonatas - No.1 in E minor and No.2 in F major - works written twenty years apart that exemplify the composer’s lyricism and romanticism. Although both works centre on the cellist, the pianist is more of a partner than an accompanist, creating a striking musical dialogue.
Each half of the programme begins with a composer that had a major influence on Brahms. First Beethoven, whom Brahms revered above all others. The Variations in E flat major - based on a theme from Mozart’s Magic Flute - are Beethoven at his most playful and inventive. The second half opens with Schumann’s lyrical and lively Drei Fantasiestücke, originally written for clarinet and piano.