Philippe Graffin / Claire Désert SCHUMANN

Fine as Gringolts is, Graffin’s performance of the second sonata accompanied by Claire Desert, finds subtler colours and contrasts in the music while also coming across as more highly charged: very engaging. I also prefer Graffin’s programme. Having given us the one masterpiece among the three sonatas, he champions the arrangement of the Cello Concerto that Schumann made for his violinist friend Joseph Joachim. I approached this with suspicion but was won over.Not only does the music retain its character in the voice of the violin, but the result sounds more convincing than the concerto Schumann wrote expressly for the violin. Excellent accompaniment from the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrucken under Christoph Poppen, and a sweet-tasting filler in the shape of Clara Schumann’s three Romances for violin and piano." (Andrew Clark)

Graffin makes a very persausive case for the Cello Concerto on a violin." "Graffin is effortlessly excellent - producing a warm, well-focused sound - and he is very deftly partnered by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrucken Kaiserslautern. Christoph Poppen is the sensitive and rhythmically alert conductor. The rest of Graffin’s disc inludes Three Romances by Clara Schumann and a passionate, strongly propelled acount of the Second Violin Sonata in an absorbing partnership with the pianist Claire Desert that makes for impressive results." (Nigel Simeone)