Bartok: Violin Sonata No. 1 (1921) / Janacek: Violin Sonata (1914-1921) / Messiaen: Theme and Variations for Violin and Piano (1932)

Bartok: Violin Sonata No. 1; Janacek: Sonata; Messiaen: Theme and Variations Gidon Kremer, violin; Martha Argerich, piano. Deutsche Grammophon 427 351-2; CD.
Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich are ideal partners in this program of forceful, searching and variably acidic early 20th-century works. The collaboration works especially well in Bartok's First Sonata (1921); this reading in many ways outshines that of an earlier pair of stars, David Oistrakh and Sviatoslav Richter. With their characteristic flexibility, Mr. Kremer and Ms. Argerich capture the near hysteria of the work's first movement, the uneasily subdued passions of the second and the throaty vehemence of the finale. And they convey that broad emotional range with coherence and unity of purpose.
The Janacek Sonata (1914-21) also benefits from an unusually intense reading; indeed, some listeners may find this account overwrought and too emotionally draining.
The aphoristic Messiaen Variations (1932) are little more than a filler, but an illuminating one. They share the Bartok's dark atmosphere and the Janacek's melodic inventiveness, with a touch of Debussian harmonic mistiness in which one hears the roots of Mr. Messiaen's later style.