Mendelssohn Violin And Piano Sonatas

The playing by these two musicians is astonishingly good. It’s so good, in fact, that the highest tribute I can pay it is to say that if Mendelssohn were alive today to hear these artists play his completed sonatas, he would rush to dust off his uncompleted manuscripts and finish them, just to hear Adkins and Magalhães play them. Even if the performances were not as phenomenally good as they are, and the TwoPianists recording was not as immaculately clean, transparent, and beautifully balanced as it is, this release would still deserve strong commendation for including more of Mendelssohn’s violin and piano works on a single disc than any others I know. But the performances and the recording are magnificent, so, urgently recommended. © 2017 Fanfare

Partnered with equal ease and nuance by pianist Luis Magalhães, Adkins captures the lyrical sweep of Mendelssohn’s F major Sonata from 1838. The youthful F major Sonata from 1820 inspires playing of great clarity and color, especially in the whirlwind finale. Adkins finds the drama in the F minor Sonata, Op. 4, as well as the poetic possibilities in the single, promising fragment from an unfinished D minor Sonata. © 2016 The Baltimore Sun