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Schubert: Violin Sonatas (Sonatinas)

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Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828) Sonata ("Sonatina") for Violin and Piano in D Major, D. 384 Sonata ("Sonatina") tor Violin and Piano in A...

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Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)

Sonata ("Sonatina") for Violin and Piano in D Major, D. 384

Sonata ("Sonatina") tor Violin and Piano in A Minor, D. 385

Sonata ("Sonatina") for Violin and Piano in G Minor, D. 408

Fantasy for Violin and Piano in C Major, D. 934

There are one or two small mysteries about the straightforward and, unproblematic set of three sonatas for violin and piano that Schubert composed in the spring of 1816. First, are they properly sonatas or sonatinas? Although until quite lately they were always listed and printed as "sonatinas", this is no true mystery at all; Schubert never called them anything but "sonatas", but like so much of his music they did not reach printed form until several years after his death, when the firm of Anton Diabelli (whose name has been immortalized by the monumental set of variations composed by Beethoven on his trivial waltz theme) put them out as "sonatinas" in 1836 in order to entice amateurs who might have felt dubious about their technical skill.

And for more than a hundred years sonatinas they remained. (Nevertheless, if we should chance to feel that Diabelli was in some way belittling the wonderful composer by his use of the diminutive, we should remind ourselves that he had also published, in 1821, the first two of Schubert's compositions to reach printed form: namely, the two songs, Der Erlkonig, which appeared as Opus 1, and Gretchen am Spinnrade, which was Opus 2.)

A more significant puzzle concerns the decidedly simple -at times, almost naive-style of these three works; it is hard to realise that they are exact contemporaries of the Fourth Symphony, in C minor, which the composer himself named the "Tragic". We know that Schubert, in his veneration for Beethoven's genius, was strongly influenced by the older composer's example and to some extent by his style and manner of writing - at all events in his instrumental music (for he can hardly have felt himself to be a disciple of anybody in the sphere of song). For example, in 1800 Beethoven had written his hugely successful Septet, to which, 24 years later when the opportunity arose, Schubert responded with an Octet that in a" respects outstripped its evident model. By 1805, however, Beethoven had written and published nine of his ten Violin Sonatas; and the last of the series, the serenely beautiful and deeply original G major, Opus 96, though written a few years earlier, reached print in 1816 - the very year of Schubert's first three. Yet in these three works - and in their few successors - Schubert writes as though Beethoven did not exist; to all intents and purposes these are violin sonatas of the older, Mozartian type, with the violin still playing a somewhat subordinate role to that of the pianoforte.

This observation applies most to the first, D major, sonata, which for all its simple attractions makes a somewhat artless effect. In the two following sonatas, the A minor, D. 385 and the G minor, D. 408, the choice of the minor key seems to have more evidently stimulated the young composer's imagination: the A minor piece is especially strong and interesting in its material and structure.

The last two of the series of violin-and-piano pieces, the Rondeau brillant in B minor, D. 895 and the Fantasy in C major, D. 934, belong to quite a different tradition, having been written in the last year of the composer's life for the young Czech violinist, Josef Slavik, who was described by Chopin as a second Paganini. The Fantasy is a long and elaborate composition in seven sections, the third of which is a theme and variations on a slightly modified form of the melody of the 1821 song, Sei mirgegr�sst. The song is popular, and its melody both voluptuous and striking; its inclusion seems to have lifted the whole composition on to quite another plane from that of its predecessors. The faint atmosphere of the schoolroom perceptible in the three early sonatas is here entirely dispelled; the general effect is warm, romantic, brilliant.

In the course of its seven movements, the Fantasy oscillates in a curious way between C major (in which it begins and ends), A minor and major, and the softly glowing A flat major, in which key Schubert writes the variations on his song-theme. The piece as a whole has been criticisied for containing "a good share of that virtuoso element with which, since Hummel and Moscheies had settled in Vienna, all piano composers in the capital were practically bound to identify themselves." Nevertheless, it seems to have fallen somewhat flat with its earliest audience. When it was first performed by Slavik and Karl Maria von Bocklet in January 1828, a Viennese critic wrote:

The Fantasy occupied rather too much of the time a Viennese is prepared to devote to pleasures of the mind. The hall emptied gradually, and the writer confesses that he too is unable to say anything about the conclusion of this piece of music.

"This must be almost the only occasion", drily comments the late Professor Westrup, "on which a music critic has admitted that he left before a piece was finished."

Dong-Suk Kang

Hailed for his artistry, virtuosity and charismatic presence on stage, the Korean violinist Dong-Suk Kang enjoys an international career spanning performances with major orchestras, at festivals and in solo recital. He first came to the attention of the concert-going public when he won both the San Francisco Symphony Competition and the Merriweather Post Competition in Washington, D.C., and subsequently went on to win top prizes in several international competitions. among them the Montreal, the Carl Flesch in London and the Queen Elizabeth in Brussels.

Pascal Devoyon

Since winning third prize in the Leeds International Piano Competition and the Silver Medal in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. Pascal Devoyon has developed his career by playing in Europe, the Far East and America. He is a regular visitor to Japan where he has given many recitals and he has also worked on both sides of the Atlantic appearing with, among others, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit.

Disc 1

Fantasy in C major, Op. 159, D. 934

(more info)

Composed by: Franz Schubert
Mirijam Contzen, violin
Gerhard Oppitz, piano
Pascal Devoyon, piano
Jennifer Koh, violin
Reiko Uchida, piano
Jonathan Feldman, piano
Adele Anthony, violin
Dong-Suk Kang, violin
Lydia Mordkovitch, violin
Frank Huang, violin
Dina Vainstein, piano
Julia Fischer, violin
Martin Helmchen,
Herbert Schuch, piano
Marco Grisanti, piano
Sinn Yang, violin
Recording date: 17-19 July 2002

Fantasy for Violin and Piano in C Major, D. 934 - 24:12:00

Violin Sonata (Sonatina) in A minor, Op. 137, No. 2, D. 385

(more info)

Composed by: Franz Schubert
Pascal Devoyon, piano
Dong-Suk Kang, violin
Julia Fischer, violin
Martin Helmchen,
Angele Dubeau, violin
Anton Kuerti, piano
Recording date: 11-13 June 1990

Allegro molto - 4:12
Andante - 4:14
Allegro vivace - 4:09
Allegro moderato - 6:39
Andante - 6:27
Menuetto: Allegro - 2:26
Allegro - 5:05

Violin Sonata (Sonatina) in G minor, Op. 137, No. 3, D. 408

(more info)

Composed by: Franz Schubert
Pascal Devoyon, piano
David Oistrakh, violin
Dong-Suk Kang, violin
Paul Badura-Skoda,
Julia Fischer, violin
Martin Helmchen,
Angele Dubeau, violin
Anton Kuerti, piano

Allegro giusto - 5:07
Andante - 4:47
Menuetto - 2:35
Allegro moderato - 4:00

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Composer(s):
Schubert, Franz

Artist(s):
Devoyon, Pascal; Kang, Dong-Suk

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099542029
Item Number: 8550420
Release Date: May 17, 1991