Bruno Monteiro & João Paulo Santos: Late Romantic Music for Violin and Piano
Etcetera Records

With Late Romantic Music for Violin and Piano, violinist Bruno Monteiro and pianist João Paulo Santos continue their fertile creative partnership and build on the impressive body of work they've released on Etcetera Records. Having earlier given their attention to material by Prokofiev, Debussy, Fauré, Ravel, Korngold, Chausson, Ysaÿe, and others, the duo now presents an inspired programme of pieces by Janacek, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, and Dohnányi. The experience the partners bring to the project is impressive: for more than a quarter-century, Monteiro has appeared as a recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician throughout the world, while Santos is not only renowned as a pianist but as an opera conductor who's maintained a four-decade association with Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (the Lisbon Opera House).

Two of the most appealing things about a Monteiro-Santos release are, first, its intimate character and, second, how strongly the personalities of the musicians resonate. With respect to intimacy, the two create the impression that they're playing in someone's living room as opposed to set back from an audience and on a formal concert stage; Monteiro in particular brands these performances with personality, his delivery always at a professional level but the violin ‘voice' also unmistakably his. A rustic-folk, even at times raw element emerges in his playing that consistently reminds us we're hearing a human being play, not a soulless automaton. In these AI times, the human element has never been of greater value.

The recital begins with the Sonata for Violin and Piano in C-Sharp minor by Hungarian composer Ernst von Dohnányi. Written between 1911 and '12, the work's firmly in the late-Romantic tradition and, interestingly, eschews the customary slow movement. The music seduces quickly when the “Allegro appassionato” opens with fervent, anxious gestures and dramatic intensity. A tad more playful by comparison, the propulsive central “Allegro ma von tenerezza” is no less lyrical than the opening movement. Packed with fireworks but also moments of nostalgic reflection, the urgent “Vivace assai" ushers the work to a spirited close. Passionate playing by the duo does much to make a compelling case for the Dohnányi work, especially when it's marked by sweeping lyricism and haunting self-examinations.

Sequenced after his sonata is Leos Janacek's own for violin and piano, his only known surviving complete sonata for the instruments. The greater part of the piece was created in the summer of 1914 at the outbreak of WWI, which might in part account for its emotional intensity—even if it underwent significant revisions before the four-movement work was completed eight years later. Agitation pervades the terse opening “Con moto,” with folk-like plucking and fragmented motifs immediately distancing the Janacek work from Dohnányi's. In place of romantic splendour we have jittery rhythms, abrupt shifts, and speech-like phrases volleyed back and forth between the recitalists. The frenzied pace slows for the rhapsodic, lullaby-like “Ballada: Con moto” movement, the work's most serene and an album highlight. Initially more dreamy than animated, the “Allegretto” veers melodically into folk territory before shifting into rhythmic dance mode, after which the work's concluding “Adagio” arrives without pause, singing rapturously before swelling to an impassioned, chorale-like coda.

Third on the programme is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Souvenir d'un lieu cher, not a sonata but a trio of lyrical settings written in 1878. Their tone might surprise, given that he composed them a year after his short-lived marriage to and subsequent separation from Antonina Milyukova. A visit to Clarens, Switzerland following that experience would appear to have been just what the doctor ordered, considering the degree to which these romantic expressions exude calm and peace. Aptly titled, the inward-probing “Méditation” unspools at a slow and graceful pace, with Santos augmenting Monteiro's long, stretching lines with gentle chords. The central “Schezo” marches with laser-focused determination and folk-like drive—although a deliciously romantic episode also emerges midway through. As well-titled is “Mélodie,” which was originally titled “Chant sans paroles” and beguiles with singing vocal-like melodies and a swooning lilt. But a single listen is required to understand why “Mélodie” is sometimes performed as a standalone.

The album's concluding work, Camille Saint-Saëns's Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso (1863), is the sole single-movement piece on the album. Dedicated to Pablo de Sarasate, the mini-concerto reflects the composer's admiration for the Spanish violinist's technique but also Saint-Saëns's own elegant French style. It was premiered in Paris with Sarasate as the soloist and the composer helming the orchestra and appears here in the violin-and-piano reduction produced by Georges Bizet at Saint-Saëns's request. While it unfolds without interruption, two contrasting sections appear, the first introspective and melancholic, the fiery second ablaze with energy and Spanish-tinged rhythms. Against hushed sprinkles of piano, the violinist emotes plaintively until Spanish-inspired rhythms and florid violin phrases announce the transition into the second part. Monteiro's put to the test when the material demands from him rapid scales, arpeggios, light-speed runs, double stops, harmonics, and other techniques.

June 2026