Violinist Rachel Kolly and pianist Christian Chamorel - complete sonatas for violin and piano by Johannes Brahms - Music box, March 11th, 2024

A record to be released on March 15th under the logo of the French house Indesens: the 3 sonatas for violin and piano by Johannes Brahms, recorded by two Swiss musicians, less known in Romania: violinist Rachel Kolly and pianist Christian Chamorel.

Rachel Kolly, 42, is currently one of the most internationally known Swiss musicians. One of the successes that propelled her was winning the International Classical Music Awards in the concert category in 2012. The award-winning production was produced under the Warner logo - French Impressions, with works by Saint Saens, Chausson and Ravel. Previously, in 2010, he was the first Swiss musician to manage to sign a recording contract with the Warner group, one of the most relevant worldwide.

Rachel Kolly's discography currently comprises 10 titles, most of them internationally noted. As are the performances of this Swiss violinist, who was considered a child prodigy, and who developed harmoniously towards a refined and very sensitive musician.

Listening to the recording of the first sonata by Johannes Brahms, op. 78 in G major, these are the first ideas that popped into my mind: refinement, tenderness and a very nostalgic nuance that not many feel the need to imprint on this music. Probably also because Rachel Kolly reflected on the personality of Johannes Brahms, as we can read in the booklet of this CD: not only the seemingly cold personality that is being talked about, but also an artist with a special sensitivity - a complex personality, embodying very special artistic and personality aspects. Rachel Kolly and Christian Chamorel choose to focus on the great romantic's special sensitivity in a refined and little-used way nowadays.

For the past 10 years, Rachel Kolly has recorded records in the company of pianist Christian Chamorel, who comes from the French-speaking part of Switzerland - being known in the Francophone area, worldwide. Christian Chamorel is a thoughtful and imaginative chamber music partner. Moreover, he carries out his career as a pianist on multiple levels, not only as a chamber music partner, but also as a soloist in concerts with the orchestra, especially in the French and Canadian francophone space.

Christian Chamorel is also a stage partner for lieds and this experience is highlighted even in the Brahms sonatas recordings on this record: a way of constructing melodic arches that closely resembles the experience of the human voice, but also a way of seeing the violin-piano partnership similar to what a pianist has to do in relation to a singer.

This obviously gives a note of quality and authenticity to the performances on this album, which were performed in January 2023 at the Music Hall in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

We further explore the heroic feeling in the recording of Sonata III by Johannes Brahms - if in the first two sonatas the emphasis of the artists falls on the sensitive side of Brahmsian music, here in this sonata we also encounter that feeling of masculinity and heroism that the music of the famous romantic gives off. The same attention to details, and in the interpretation of Sonata no. three. 108 in D minor by Johannes Brahms, signed by Rachel Kolly and Christian Chamorel.