Into Madness

German violinist Tassilo Probst, born in 2002, and his close contemporary, the American pianist Maxim Lando, underline their rising-star status with exquisite interpretations of three late-Romantic sonatas. Probst’s entrancing debut album includes the world premiere recording of the Sonata No. 2 by the violinist/composer Joseph Achron, a monumental work of striking breadth and depth of invention, fiendish technical demands and intense focus. Perhaps that’s why, as Probst suggests, it’s never been recorded before. Into Madness, the album’s pithy title, stands for the haunting instability of Achron’s score. It also reflects the often introspective nature of Bartók’s early Violin Sonata No. 1, with its languid introduction and mysterious slow movement, the rhapsodic meanderings of George Enescu’s atmospheric Violin Sonata No. 3, and the combustible energy generated by these two superb young musicians.