Putting Solo Careers Aside to Work a Stage Together

Christian Tetzlaff and Leif Ove Andsnes

In chamber music it is often hard to say what makes a particular pairing of players succeed. The German violinist Christian Tetzlaff and the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes routinely take time from their thriving solo careers to play duo recitals. I wonder if even they could explain why they hit it off so well.

But they do, as their recital at Carnegie Hall on Monday night, the last stop in a whirlwind North American tour, made abundantly clear. Their urgent and insightful account of Brahms’s Violin Sonata in D minor, which closed the first half of the program, was especially telling. Here were two accomplished artists with distinctive temperaments forging an organic interpretation that still managed to exude impetuosity.

One value these players share is the integrity of the score. Notes and rhythms are executed cleanly, no cheating. There was, for example, the hushed development section of the first movement of the Brahms, when, over a hypnotically repeated octave in the low register of the piano, the violin and the piano traded lacy, winding, high-lying melodic phrases. Every note pierced through the murky colorings that Mr. Tetzlaff and Mr. Andsnes summoned in this astonishing episode.

To read the full music review on NYTimes.com, click here.