Good friends and music collaborators Mr. Itzhak Perlman and Emanuel Ax enjoy each other’s company on and off stage. The duo opened the 51st season of the Harriman-Jewell Series at Helzberg Hall in Kansas City.

Perlman and Ax were welcomed on stage with a standing ovation, the first of six throughout the evening. They performed three sonatas for violin and piano and, as an encore, a truncated comedy routine for violinist and pianist.

The pair recently recorded an album, Fauré & Strauss Violin Sonatas on Deutsche Grammophon/UMC. Here’s what the Classical Music reviewer, Stephen Prtichard for the Observer had to say about their new album:

“Itzhak Perlman is celebrating his 70th birthday with multiple reissues of his vast catalogue and this new recording – his first solo release for 16 years and his first-ever with his longtime platform partner Emanuel Ax. This is vintage, songful Perlman: each line in the Fauré and Strauss sonatas is beautifully drawn and meticulously judged and everything overlain with an attractive patina of age and experience. Ax imbues the romance and fire of these youthful works with genuine warmth and wisdom; it’s as though these two veteran performers are taking a wistful look back over long and eventful careers, while still excited by the possibilities to come. A disc to treasure”