Geoffroy Couteau continues to serve Brahms’s work, here in the company of cellist Raphaël Perraud, with the fervour he has been known for since his complete piano works were published in Spring 2016.

The two sonatas for cello and piano constitute pages of prime importance in Brahms’s corpus. Powerfully lyrical, a realm of pure interiority, they provide a glimpse into his youthful period as well as his mature period, close to his fourth and final symphony. Summits of chamber music, these sonatas of a protean humanity demand from their performers as much complementarity as osmosis.

Geoffroy Couteau and Raphaël Perraud impose a skillfully matured balance. Sweetness and rage, melancholy and frenzy, meditation and exaltation are combined in eloquently spontaneous inflections. The fantastic aspect of this battle between cello and piano never ceases to gain in depth and lyricism throughout the programme.