Anyone with concerns about the future of artistic excellence in classical music need look no further than Nielsen Competition winner Liya Petrova and Tchaikovsky Competition winner Alexandre Kantorow, whose recordings and performances attest to their unceasing pursuit of perfection. These two solo superstars, friends and longtime collaborators, team up for two of the most remarkable chamber works for their instruments at De Singel in Antwerp. First up: César Franck's Violin Sonata in A, a piece so singular in its mesmerizing harmonic language that it sounds as if it could have been composed at any time over the last 150 years, and known for the difficulty of its piano writing that requires a pianist of Kantorow's virtuosic calibre. Next up is the Violin Sonata in E-flat by a young Richard Strauss, full of the characteristic textures and harmonies that would later characterize his celebrated tone poems, as well as sublime romantic gestures: Strauss wrote this gem just after meeting and falling for soprano Pauline de Ahna, to whom he would remain married until his death over 60 years later. 

Photo © Gérard Proust