Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 01/23/2012, uploaded on 01/23/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Camille Saint-Saёns wrote his First Violin Sonata in 1885, after having composed three violin concerti and his famous Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for violin and orchestra.  The structure of the sonata is unorthodox:  the four movements are paired so that the first two and last two movements are connected, dividing the sonata into two compound movements.  The first movement, marked Allegro agitato, is full of tension, agitation, and restlessness.  The lyrical second movement, Adagio, expresses nostalgia and Romantic yearning, contrasted by a lighter dancelike central episode.  The balletic third movement, Allegretto moderato, dances lightly and gracefully in a breezy triple meter; it recalls the elfin spirit of the famous scherzo from Felix Mendelssohn’s incidental music to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (a piece that Saint-Saëns transcribed for piano).  The finale, Allegro molto, erupts with a flurry of running sixteenth notes in the violin.  The middle section reprises a reminiscence of the lyrical second theme from the first movement, giving the piece a sense of unifying cyclic form.  In the coda, Saint-Saëns returns to the rush of the sixteenth notes, this time in simultaneous octaves by the two instruments, leading to a triumphant conclusion.     Wen Lei Gu

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Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor   Camille Saint-Saëns         

Camille Saint-Saëns composed on two sonatas for the violin during his long career. The first of these, the Sonata No. 1 in D minor, appeared in 1885 during what is considered the composer’s best period, witnessing the production of The Carnival of the Animals (which regretfully would not attain public adoration until after the composer’s death) and the Symphony No. 3. Assuming its place alongside these other masterworks, it has become a staple of the violin repertoire, outshining its companion piece, the Second Sonata in E-flat major which appeared a little more than a decade later in 1896.

Perhaps the reason for the First Violin Sonata’s success is its effective channeling of a Beethovenian energy—a heroic struggle indicative of that past composer which Saint-Saëns himself greatly admired. Indeed, even the selection of key by Saint-Saëns hearkens back to Beethoven, although not the stormy C minor of his Fifth Symphony, but instead the epic struggle in D minor of his Ninth. Furthermore, the scale of the sonata’s movements is modeled on the grand fashion of Beethoven’s music and augmented even further by the Romantic addition of a fourth movement.

The sonata’s dramatic first movement opens with a turbulent theme, initially piano but growing in fervor until reaching a passionate forte, announced by soloist and accompanist. Twice stated, the first theme leads through A-flat major into the lyrical second theme in F major, which soars atop an accompaniment of broken chords. Without break and following seamlessly from a transitional passage built out of the second theme the Adagio second movement begins with an expressive melody in the violin. Quite different from the prior movement, the Adagio is heartwarming and sentimental, particularly in its central episode.

Though not so marked, the third movement is a lighthearted and jocular scherzo in G minor. The character of the movement is perhaps somewhat reminiscent of Mendelssohn, whose music Saint-Saëns also admired. Despite returning to the minor key, the movement has none of the dramatics of the opening sonata form. In contrast, the trio section features a briefly lyrical tune accompanied by an overhanging motif from the scherzo. This tune, however, returns to form the transition into the finale. An energetic movement in D major, the finale calls on the virtuosity of both performers to create a thrilling and jubilant conclusion to the sonata.     JosephDuBose

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.