Duo MAISS YOU: Burkhard Maiss, Violin | Viola & Ji-Yeoun You, Piano

On this album, the Duo MAISS YOU presents two kindred masterpieces: Beethoven's "Kreutzer Sonata" and B. A. Zimmermann's 1950 Violin Sonata. These two works are interrelated in a whole variety of ways, not just through Zimmermann's preoccupation with Beethoven's chamber music. The Duo combines these two sonatas with Brahms' last chamber work, the Viola Sonata Op. 120/2. Composed in 1894, the Viola Sonata presents a stunning retrospective of the era of the great classical sonatas.

Wild and untamed
"Do you know the first presto? You do?......! It is a terrifying thing, that sonata. And especially that part. And in general music is a terrifying thing! What is it? What does it do? Why does it do what it does? They say music exalts the soul. Nonsense, it is not true! It is effective, terribly effective – I am speaking of myself – but not in an exalting way. It has neither an exalting nor a debasing effect but an agitating one." Eighty-four years after Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Kreutzer Sonata in 1803, Tolstoy gave this succinct and accurate description of the work in his eponymous novella. This passage is quoted again and again because it conveys such a vivid impression not only of the sonata's singular nature, but also of its extra-musical impact. Nor has the work lost any of its magic, mystery, and uniqueness since. From Dürrenmatt to de Moor, the sonata's influence has ranged far beyond the boundaries of music, and one would have to search long and hard to find another chamber work that enjoys similar renown. [...]


Duo MAISS YOU – With his internationally acclaimed CD recording of the Violin Sonata Op. 121 by Schumann and the Violasonata Op. 120/1 by Brahms (TYXart records CD No. TXA18110, Vol. 1) the Duo MAISS YOU has also officially moved into the forefront of excellent chamber music ensembles.
The recording was published in Crescendo Magazine in Belgium as a CD Tip: "full of charm, therefore, to listen to without moderation." And Klassik Heute celebrated the CD with top ratings: "What is played here comes from the whole soul, senses the finest soul movements and opens up unreservedly to all emotional storming. Turning the innermost outward, deriving both highly cultured music making and relentless immediacy – in this regard Burkhard Maiss and Ji-Yeoun You are sensitive mediators."
Two years later, the Duo MAISS YOU was able to follow up on this success impressively with their second release. With the Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 (1922) by Béla Bartόk and the Sonata for Violin and Piano (1914–21) by Leoš Janáček, it presented two reference works of Classical Modernism and presented them with a world first recording of the Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 156 (2018) by contemporary Roland Leistner-Mayer (b. 1945) (TYXart records CD No. TXA19130, Vol. 2). Recognition for this came from the highest place. Thus the nmz – Neue Musikzeitung spoke of "a convincing, energetically pulsed interpretation of the sonatas by Janacek and Bartók", and The New Listener summed it up: "Duo MAISS YOU seems to have grown even closer together after their debut album and plays completely out of one breath and one intention." The Art Music Lounge USA finally awarded enthusiastically: "WHAT A PERFORMANCE! WINNER 2020 – This is clearly one of the best chamber music releases of the year, highly recommended." And, last but not least, nominated for the OPUS KLASSIK 2021!

[Extract of the multi-lingual CD Booklet]

CD Programme (Tracklist):