Schubert: Grand Duo for Violin and Piano in A Major, D574

“A splendid calling card from one of today's most outstanding and versatile violinists, who plays it all with equal ease.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 *****

“Characteristic Schubert, played with penetrating subtlety by the two young Germans Fischer and Helmchen...The CD ends with the D940 Fantasia for piano duet, with Fischer partnering in a powerful performance: one moment fiery, the next caressing. And all such heavenly music.” The Times, 22nd May 2010 ****

“They give a magnificent account of this inspired work [the F major Fantasy]...It's a challenging piece...yet Fischer and Helmchen present as fine as any account on disc...They are a marvellous team, evidently giving each other ideas as they go along.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 *****

“I found the Fantasy, especially, remarkably convincing in its new guise. The transposition to cello...enhances the sense of virtuosity as Wispelwey triumphantly surmounts each hurdle...As expected from these artists, the performance of the Arpeggione Sonata is most accomplished.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2010

“An ingredient that Manze and Egarr display in abundance is imagination” Gramophone Magazine

“The song-variations at the heart of the Fantaisie put on a good show of polite drawing-room charm, but the strange tremolando introduction strays close to a very late-Schubertian emotional cliff-edge. Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov are particularly successful in that strange, haunting opening.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2006 ****

“In nearly every respect this is outstanding. The Rondo and the Fantasie, both written for the virtuoso duo of Karl von Bocklet and Josef Slawik, can sound as if Schubert were striving for a brilliant, flashy style, foreign to his nature.
Both are in places uncomfortable to play (when first published, the Fantasie's violin part was simplified), but you would never guess this from Faust's and Melnikov's performance; they both nonchalantly toss off any problem passages as though child's play.
The Fantasie's finale and the Rondo are irresistibly lively and spirited, and this duo's technical finesse extends to more poetic episodes – Melnikov's tremolo at the start of the Fantasie shimmers delicately, while the filigree passagework in the last of the variations that form the Fantasie's centrepiece have a delightful poise and sense of ease.
The Sonata's more intimate style is captured just as convincingly; in all three performances Faust and Melnikov observe Schubert's often very detailed, careful expression marks, not as a matter of duty, but as a stimulus to the imagination, as a way of entering more deeply into the music.
The one slight reservation concerns Isabelle Faust's manner of expression. She makes the most of any passionate phrases and is equally convincing at cool, mysterious or dreamlike moments.
But the lyrical phrases in the Rondo's introduction surely demand a more heartfelt utterance.
In the Sonata, too, there are places where one longs for more warmth. This quibble aside, it's a lovely disc, one to listen to over and over again.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The Fantasie's finale and the Rondo are irresistibly lively and scripted, and this duo's technical finesses extends to more poetic episodes - Melnikov's tremolo at the start of the Fantasie shimmers delicately, while the filigree passagework in the last of the variations that form the Fantasie's centrepiece have a delightful poise and sense of ease.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2006

“Alexander Melnikov's bright, at times almost puckish, piano playing is perfectly matched by the violinist Isabel Faust. She is one of the few violinists who virtually always hits the note dead-centre, and her rapport with Melnikov is clear.” Rob Cowan, The Independent