{TABLE} Sonata for Piano and Violin in E minor K304...................Mozart Violin Sonata No 2 in A. Op 100...............................Brahms Partita for Violin and Piano (1984)...........................Lutoslawski {/TABLE} THE name chamber music suggests private rather than public performance. But an ideal performance, in the presence of an audience, should have the intimacy of the one and the extroversion of the other.
The recital by Paul Fanning (violin) and David Brophy (piano) last Friday was too much inclined towards the private: a decent restraint is welcome, but if it is accompanied by a lack of passion it can be a liability.
Paul Fanning's tendency towards ending phrases on a diminuendo, so that they did not stop but disappeared with no suggestion of any latent continuation, was unsettling; and it was left to David Brophy to keep the movements flowing. This problem, which made the Mozart and Brahms rather disappointing, did not arise in Lutoslawksi's Partita.
Both players seemed much more involved in this work and the contrast between the comparatively regular first, third and fifth movements and the very free second and fourth movements was most effective.
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