| This double album explores ‘paths into Impressionism’: starting with the two important sonatas for violin and piano by Gabriel Fauré, the first of which was already described as a masterpiece by Camille Saint-Saëns, and four other short pieces by Fauré, the great Salzburg violinist Thomas Albertus Irnberger and the German pianist Michael Korstick, who is already very familiar with the French idiom through many of his own recordings, present further works from the French and Belgian repertoire in their usual masterly and spirited interpretations: the sonata by Guillaume Lekeu, who died at an early age, which was commissioned and premièred by Eugène Ysaÿe, and Maurice Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. The sonata by Guillaume Lekeu, who died young and was commissioned and premiered by Eugène Ysaÿe, and Maurice Ravel’s sonata (with a blues as the middle movement), characterised by Ravel’s view that violin and piano were fundamentally incompatible. The resulting manifold parallel developments and bitonal frictions create specific stimuli, without the music being the least bit disjointed. Ravel’s ‘Kaddish’ and the ‘Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré’, dedicated to his teacher, can also be heard, as well as the sonata by Francis Poulenc, written in collaboration with Ginette Neveu and dedicated posthumously to Federico García Lorca, and the fascinating work ‘Thème et variations’ by Olivier Messiaen, which he dedicated to his first wife, a violinist, and which still contains many impressionistic elements.
Tracklist
CD1
01. Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in A major, Op. 13 – I – Allegro molto
02. Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in A major, Op. 13 – II – Andante
03. Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in A major, Op. 13 – III – Allegro vivo
04. Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in A major, Op. 13 – IV – Allegro quasi presto
05. Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in E minor, Op. 108 – I – Allegro non troppo
06. Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in E minor, Op. 108 – II – Andante
07. Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in E minor, Op. 108 – III – Final. Allegro non troppo
08. Romance pour violon et piano op. 28
09. Andante pour violon et piano op. 75
10. Sicilienne pour violoncelle/violon et piano op. 78
11. Berceuse pour violon et piano op. 16
12. Thème et variations pour violon et piano
CD2
01. Sonata for Piano and Violin: I – Très modéré – vif et passionné
02. Sonata for Piano and Violin: II – Très lent
03. Sonata for Piano and Violin: III – Très animé
04. Sonata for Violin and Piano: I – Allegretto
05. Sonata for Violin and Piano: II – Blues: Moderato
06. Sonata for Violin and Piano: III – Perpetuum mobile: Allegro
07. Sonata for Violin and Piano: I – Allegro con fuoco
08. Sonata for Violin and Piano: II – Intermezzo: Très lent et calme
09. Sonata for Violin and Piano: III – Presto tragico
10. Deux mélodies hébraïques: I. Kaddisch (pour violon et piano)
11. Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré. Simplice
13222990066/104.28.159.215
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