Although Schubert, Beethoven, and Brahms are all obviously strongly associated with the piano as their performing instrument, all three knew their way around the higher string instruments: Schubert and Beethoven by direct experience, Brahms through life-long collaboration with prominent violinists. In these sonatas – Schubert’s was labeled a “sonatina” by its publisher to appeal to the amateur market – the two instruments are fluently meshed in instrumentally idiosyncratic yet abstractedly universal webs. (The Brahms Sonata is the composer’s own adaptation of a work he originally composed with the clarinet in mind and ear.)

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Two powerhouse performers join forces for a rich, dark, Romantic program.