Brahms' Second Sonata is a monster to play, for the pianist as well as the cellist. It's a glorious work, no doubt, but really not quite reasonable in its demands for technical control and endurance. The opening leaps of the cello entrance, for instance, jump the left hand upward very quickly toward a hopeful landing. I remember one cellist telling me years back that “I guess Brahms expected us to have frets on the fingerboard.” I've heard a few famous cellist play that opening messily. (You'd be surprised.)

All three performances Friday were excellent, but the Brahms was particularly outstanding. McCray managed to bring the challenging piano role into perfect alignment: big, robust playing that never drowned out Hong. Considering Brahms' thick, muscular piano writing — it's a nearly concerto-like piano part — the display was classy pianism indeed. Yet the heroics of the duo were really spearheaded by Hong. It's little wonder that among her prizes stands New York's Artists International award, which provided her debut there. This was altogether a memorable performance, one to set with the very best in my experience.

Rachmaninoff never had much luck with chamber music, a failing shared with a number of other late Romantics (Richard Strauss and Edward Elgar come to mind). The 1901 Sonata comes from an important period in the composer's life. His famous Second Concerto is his Op 18, and Op. 20, his neglected cantata, The Spring. But like many of his works, the Sonata is too long to support its moping thematic substance. It's too bad he never got around to revising it with authorized cuts, as he did with other music, such as the Second Symphony, Third Concerto, et al. It is demanding music, but wearisome to sit through.

Rachmaninoff's chamber music tends to be piano-heavy, like Chopin's. There's even a fairly long, cadenza-like passage for the pianist in this Sonata, while the cellist just sits there. Not that the cello part itself is easy; to the contrary, the part is as least as dangerous as the one in the Debussy. The music is already so steeped in sentimentality that the least offense against tasteful playing can lead to snickers. As Strauss once cautioned an over-the-top Salome, “Please madam, the music is vulgar enough.” One has to underplay the emotional element a bit, which is exactly what Hong and McCray did.

Again the playing was fine, fully accomplished from every point of view, with McCray outstanding in his controlled bravura. I loved the playing, but was bored with the music after the first 20 minutes. Far more successful was the encore, a transcription of the well-known Rachmaninoff Vocalise, the wordless finale to his Op. 34 set of 14 songs.