Anthony Byrne (piano), Alan Smale (violin)

Sonata No. 3 in E flat, Op 12 No. 3 - Beethoven

Sonata No. 6 in A, Op. 30 No. 1 - Beethoven

Sonata No. 8 in G, Op. 30 No. 3 - Beethoven

In the second of the four recitals, in which Anthony Byrne and Alan Smale are performing all of Beethoven's Sonata for Piano and Violin, there was a strong sense of tradition. It was like revisiting an ancestral home - no matter if one had only lived there in dreams - and finding that the gravel was still swept, the flower beds were full of roses and the same birds sang in the secular trees around the lake. The old familiar rituals of living were still observed, so that one felt quite at home.

The sense of an equal partnership between the two players was very evident; perhaps a greater sense of one instrument yielding to another as melody and accompaniment changed places would have helped the ebb and flow of the music. To the welcome clarity of the recital as a whole were wedded some moments of surprising tenderness, even if they were soon forgotten in the rambunctious finale.