Richard Strauss’ first and only sonata for violin and piano and George Enescu’s third, the former as radiant, heroic and sublime as the latter is dark, melancholy and feverish; it is in their transcendent qualities that the two sonatas are related. Both works signify an important milestone in their respective creators’ development as composers; they also constitute milestones in our own development as instrumentalists, both individually and as a duo.
Canadian pianist Glenn Gould repeatedly bemoaned the fact that late romantic composers neglected the intimacy and interaction of the sonata form for the benefit of the megalomaniac symphonic apparatus. Gould considered this to be a ‘missing link’ in the history of instrumental music. One could argue that this gap in the instrumental repertoire has been filled in part by the sonatas of the two great fin-de-siècle symphonists Strauss and Enescu; these are not first and foremost duo sonatas, but full-blooded symphonic opuses for violin and piano.
It is in this transcendent quality that the two sonatas on this recording are related: both of them represent a revolutionary approach to genre, form, musical language, instrumental technique and epoch, and both works signify an important milestone in their respective creators’ development as composers.
Sonatas by Richard Strauss and George Enescu | THE ART OF TRANSCENDENCE
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Album title
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Strauss & Enescu |
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Performer
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Kolbjørn Holthe, violin |
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Catalogue #
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2L-034-SACD |
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EAN13
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7041888511120 |
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ISRC-code
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NOMPP0602010-060 |
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Disc 1
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Hybrid SACD |
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Release date
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February 2006 |
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Recording date
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September 2005 |
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Location
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Sofienberg Church, Oslo, Norway |
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Original source
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44.1kHz/24bit |