It is very seldom these days that music so immediately affects one as that on the most recently recorded CD from Isabella I-Sheng Zehetner (violin) and Teppei Soeda (piano). These two artists present a broad variety of music spanning centuries and play everything so naturally and diversely, that in every bar one hears lively present – “contemporary music“. Mozart’s well-known E-Minor Sonata always reminds me of Brahms’ sharp-witted remark: „played and studied Mozart when he was still young and cheeky!“ – and, hence, willing to take risks. In Schumann’s Romances one is drawn into the spell by an extremely sensitive dynamic, phrasing and articulation. A play full of surprises! One hears the piece as if it were created in the moment, while the „ink is still wet“. One experiences the salubrious interplay of advancing and hesitating, played with the „necessary“ and never the random freedom. With these two performers, music always has time to swing out. How pleasant this is in the three movements of Brahms’ G-Major Sonata Opus 78. Pure pleasure in the playing stamps Kreisler’s ‚Synkopation‘, and later ‚Thais‘ and ‚Chanson de Matin‘. One can but treasure owning such a CD.

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Vienna, 20 August 2016, Peter Barcaba

composer and professor of piano at The University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna Austria