Le 24 avril 2003

Cellist Yegor Dyachov and pianist Jean Saulnier won Quebec's Opus Award for CD of the Year with their recording of sonatas by Shostakovich, Schnittke and Prokofiev in 2001, and their new Brahms release, also for the Quebec-based Analekta label, more than lives up to the promise of that earlier disc. Theirs is the kind of dynamic, balanced partnership that recharges chamber music. From the fantasy-like freedom of the opening of the E Minor Sonata to the poise of its minuet, or from the way the surging power of the "Allegro passionata" from the F major Sonata makes way for the naiveté of its last movement (as if there had been a complete changing of the guard), these two players sense one another's tiny games with time with mind-reading ease. It's a soliloquy for two. The superlative recorded sound makes Brahms's dense textures wonderfully clear here too, but there's also a tidiness to the interpretations themselves that lets the music speak -- you can almost imagine the words between the lines.

Elissa Poole
 

Le 12 avril 2003

Des Brahms superbes et enveloppants dans la tradition romantique

… Voilà Brahms comme on aime: enveloppé, inspiré, émouvant. Avec l'excellent pianiste Jean Saulnier et sa sonorité pleine, riche et généreuse, et son sens du détail et de la texture, et la partie de violoncelle tenue par le non moins solide Yegor Dyachkov, subtil de retenue qui ne parle pas pour ne rien dire. Chez lui, le style n'est jamais affecté et reste campé dans la contrepartie plus intérieure de ces oeuvres au lyrisme et au romantisme à peine voilé. (...)voilà une interprétation engagée et soutenue, dans le respect de la tradition romantique, et qui trouvera bien des adeptes pour qui aime Brahms comme tel.

Guy Marceau  (Les disques de la semaine)