How do you reconcile with a friend you’ve offended? If you’re Johannes Brahms, you dedicate your last great orchestral work to him, naturally...
When Brahms’s friend of several decades, the violinist Joseph Joachim, split up with his wife Amalie (a renowned contralto), Brahms sided with Amalie and found himself abruptly estranged from Joseph. As a gesture of good will, he decided to dedicate the 1887 Double Concerto for Violin and Cello to his longtime friend and collaborator—a gesture which, happily, had its intended effect. If the work is a musical portrait of friendship, it’s fitting that, in this lovely 2019 recording, the solo roles go to a pair of sisters: Soo-Jin Hong, a violinist with exquisite phrasing, and Soo-Kyung Hong, whose cello rings out with warm and elegant tone.
Danish National Symphony Orchestra