Steven Winn

As a lens on the arc and evolving character of Beethoven's music, the complete works for cello and piano offer a concise, revealing, and altogether absorbing perspective.

In this striking double-disc of contrasting moods and temperaments, violinist Gidon Kremer and pianist Martha Argerich take up a program of Schumann and Bartók sonatas. From Kremer’s leisurely, sun-dappled pizzicato statement of the third-movement theme in Schumann’s Violin Sonata No.

“We’re having a lot of fun down here,” says David Gordon, dramaturge of the Carmel Bach Festival.

For most of their long and fruitful collaboration, East Bay composer Peter Josheff made the music-first move and counted on librettist Jaime Robles to follow. “I would ask for her text, and she would give me exactly what I wanted,” said Josheff, 54, in a recent conversation. He once requested the words for six male voices. Robles responded with a libretto for a poker game (Three Hands).