Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 02/10/2011, uploaded on 02/10/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Heading into the later decades of the 19^th century, opera dominated French musical life to the point of stifling outlets for other forms of music and making it difficult for young composers to attract attention to their own works. Thus, in 1871, Camille Saint-Saëns cofounded the Société Nationale de Musique with the purpose of promoting new French music and increasing the presence of chamber and symphonic music in French culture. With this new outlet open to emerging composers, a younger generation helped reshape the direction of French music leading into the 20^th century. One particular form to flourish, not so much in quantity but with a small number of highly crafted works, was the violin sonata, beginning with Fauré, Saint-Saëns himself, and Franck and lasting through Debussy and Ravel, and imbued with all the richness and lyricism of France itself.

Fauré’s First Violin Sonata was composed in 1876 and was published as his opus 13. In the blithe key of A major, it is an intensely lyrical sonata that wonderfully displays the instrument’s warm lyricism. Indeed, no movement, including the playful scherzo, is devoid of at least once arching, lyrical melody. Throughout the work and in the Romantic tradition, violin and piano are treated as equal partners, complimenting each other and taking equally important roles in presenting the sonata’s argument. The first movement is a finely crafted sonata form featuring two themes, each with a restless energy though restrained by the composer’s classicism. Shifting into the key of the subdominant minor, the Adagio second movement is dramatic yet manages not to cast a shadow over the sonata’s warmth despite its minor tonality. Following the Adagio is a spirited scherzo, which alternates a staccato idea taken in a fast duple meter against a lyrical triple meter melody. Lastly, the Allegro finale has a contented demeanor and proceeds with a relaxed pace right up to its concluding chords.         Joseph DuBose

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Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1, Op. 13    Gabriel Fauré

Allegro molto; Andante; Allegro vivo; Allegro quasi presto

Beginning in the middle of the last half of the nineteenth century, there appeared a number of exquisite French violin sonatas which share the elements of lovely melodies, elegant expression, tasteful and sincere emotionalism, and well-balanced forms.  They also occupy a special place in the repertoire and affections of violinists the world over. Franck, Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel are all contributors to this line of great sonatas.

Fauré, in fact, contributed two such sonatas, separated by 40 years, of which this one is by far the better known, and may be said to have initiated the line. Florent Schmitt correctly wrote that its appearance "marks a red-letter day in the history of chamber music."

Each movement has at least one achingly lovely lyrical theme. The passionate first theme is shared by both instruments (piano and violin are treated as partners throughout the work, rather than as soloist and accompaniment). The second movement, Andante, is reticent, almost shy, in character, with a fine melody for violin. The Scherzo is light-hearted in its outer sections, but lyricism returns in its central section, or "trio." Finally, the last movement is dramatic and emotional, yet even here there is an interlude with a lovely romantic theme.      Soran Sophia Lee

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.