• 22 MAR 2024 - Review - Gramophone Mag - David Patrick Stearns
This recording claims a niche in the crowded Brahms discography in ways that don’t come fully into focus until one reads Kolly’s well-researched and well-written booklet notes. At one point, she quotes the composer as complimenting a French string quartet for the lightness of their playing, in contrast to the heavier playing of the Germanic instrumentalists. ‘We’ve been warned!’ Kolly writes.
Getting fully on board with Kolly’s subtle, anything-but-slick approach means realigning one’s hearing away from surface effects achieved by vibrato and more towards the way she differentiates each phrase – some articulated like an inhale and an exhale, but never obscuring the composer’s fundamental formality and roots in past centuries. Kolly’s tone is particularly pleasing in the upper range (note her final seconds in Op 78). She also uses her sense of colour and weight to create a long build to the end of a movement. The opening movement of Op 100 is notable for the mystery she finds in the heart of the development section.
The set truly comes into its own with the Op 108 Sonata, with much credit going to pianist Chamorel. He has Brahms in his bones, employing a rich bass range that’s an ideal counterpart to Kolly’s glistening stratosphere. He has a strong but never overbearing sense of phrase direction and subtle tempo flexibility that unlocks the sonata’s deeper meaning. It’s odd to think that a special feeling for Brahms’s rhythm would make a strong interpretative difference, but that element from Chamorel made me prick up my ears often, especially as used with synergistic effect that completes an interpretative idea being explored by Kolly. Kolly/Chamorel take me back to the music’s more fundamental elements, plus having the youthful Brahms-authored Scherzo from the jointly composed FAE Sonata played as a fun encore.
