Together, Corey Cerovsek and Paavali Jumppanen have turned in one of the freshest, sweetest, and altogether most charming sets of Beethoven's violin sonatas in years. Though not imbued with the blazing virtuosity that Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich or the heightened expressivity that Itzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy brought to the works, Cerovsek and Jumppanen create performances of poise, depth, and refinement.

Celebrated for his vivid orchestral pieces and effective scores for such films as Altered States and The Red Violin, John Corigliano is somewhat less renowned for his chamber music and keyboard oeuvre. Yet his international career took off with the premiere of his Sonata for violin and piano (1963), and he has periodically composed important works for piano, all of which show the same expertise and originality displayed in his major concert works. These sophisticated but highly entertaining pieces are not insufficiently recorded, but they are usually scattered about on CDs with other composers' works, so it is good to find them together on this 2006 Black Box release, in lively performances and recorded with fine sound. Violinist Corey Cerovsek and pianist Andrew Russo deliver what is probably the most engaging and accessible performance of the program in the sonata, a neo-Classical work that evokes the Americana style of Copland as well as the academic counterpoint of Hindemith.