The Berlin Recital

Disc 1
1	Sonata for violin & piano
2	Sonata for violin & piano
3	Sonata for violin & piano
4	Sonata for violin & piano
5	Sonata for violin solo ("
6	Sonata for violin solo ("
7	Sonata for violin solo ("
8	Sonata for violin solo ("
Disc 2
1	Kinderszenen (Scenes from
2	Kinderszenen (Scenes from
4	Kinderszenen (Scenes from
5	Kinderszenen (Scenes from
6	Kinderszenen (Scenes from
7	Kinderszenen (Scenes from
8	Kinderszenen (Scenes from
9	Kinderszenen (Scenes from
10	Kinderszenen (Scenes from
11	Kinderszenen (Scenes from
12	Kinderszenen (Scenes from
13	Kinderszenen (Scenes from
14	Sonata for violin & piano
15	Sonata for violin & piano
16	Sonata for violin & piano
17	Liebesleid (Love's Sorrow
18	Schön Rosmarin, for violi
The Berlin Recital
1.	Sonata for violin & piano No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121 32:51
	Composed by Robert Schumann
	Performed by Martha Argerich and Gidon Kremer
2.	Sonata for violin solo ("quarter-tone variant" version, published in 1994), Sz. 117, BB 124 25:12
	Composed by Béla Bartók
	Performed by Gidon Kremer
3.	Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) for piano, Op. 15 18:28
	Composed by Robert Schumann
	Performed by Martha Argerich
4.	Sonata for violin & piano No. 1 in C sharp minor, Sz. 75, BB 84 (Op. 21) 33:32
	Composed by Béla Bartók
	Performed by Martha Argerich and Gidon Kremer
5.	Liebesleid (Love's Sorrow), for violin & piano 4:28
	Composed by Fritz Kreisler
	Performed by Martha Argerich and Gidon Kremer
6.	Schön Rosmarin, for violin & piano 2:09
	Composed by Fritz Kreisler
	Performed by Martha Argerich and Gidon Kremer

All Music Guide

Violinist Gidon Kremer and pianist Martha Argerich are two of the greatest living virtuosos on their instruments and, though they are wholly individualistic players, they get along extremely well together. German Romantic Robert Schumann and Hungarian modernist Béla Bartók don't have much in common at first blush: one is dreamy and poetic, the other brutal and cerebral. But as Kremer and Argerich's recital reveals, one thing Schumann and Bartók have in common is passionate expressivity; the two players bring that quality out no matter which composer's music they're playing. Schumann's ardent lyricism and Bartók's searing lines are both equally articulated here.

The program itself is wonderfully paced by alternating between the two composers and solo and duo works. Thus, Kremer soars in Bartók's "Solo Violin Sonata," Argerich shines in Schumann's "Kinderszenen," and they both catch fire together in the formers "First Sonata" and latter's "Second Sonatas." The addition of Kremer and Argerich's extremely soulful readings of Fritz Kreisler's "Liebesleid" and "Schön Rosmarin" as encores are like dessert after a heavy meal.

It should be noted that the recording here of "Kinderszenen" is Argerich's first solo recording in three decades. It is entirely different in conception and execution from her 1984 Deutsche Grammophon recording and demands to be heard by anyone who admires the Argentinean pianist's work. James Leonard

Gramophone

[June 2009 CD of the Month] Argerich is expansive and sumptuous one minute, almost ghostly the next. Kremer makes the most extraordinary sounds, occasionally it seems as though acid is eating into his strings -- and the composers' souls. It will be a long time before I forget his spectral meanderings in Bartók's First Sonata. Something of an instant classic. James Inverne