Anne-Sophie Mutter, António Meneses, Herbert von Karajan - Brahms: Double Concerto, Tragic Overture (2008)

In the Double Concerto Mutter is joined by a young Brazilian cellist, still in his twenties, named Antonio Meneses, another Karajan protege, I suspect, whose career didn't soar like Mutter's. It's touching that a grand maestro should give the spotlight over to two young colleagues. Meneses is unusually lyrical and rhapsodist in the cello part, plaing with chamber-music sensitivity and gorgeous tone (amplified out of porportion by DG's engineers, as is typical in this work). Mutter matches Meneses in sensitivity; overall the performance is slow and inward, perhaps too much so for its own good.