THE EVOLUTION OF THE EUROPEAN VIOLIN AND PIANO SONATA, 1875-1950

Abstract

My project is called "The Evolution of the European Violin and Piano Sonata, 1875-1950." My project included the three Brahms Sonatas for Piano and Violin, Dvorik's Sonatina in G Major, JanaEekYs Sonata for Violin and Piano, Grieg's Sonata in C minor, Prokofieff s Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano as well as Saint-Saens' Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano. These works represent a sample of important works of the late 19th and early 2oLh century. In the late 19Ih and early 2oth century, large numbers of sonatas were produced. Brahms was basically following the classical, traditional style in forms and materials, even though his music contains Romantic elements such as rich harmonies and lyric melodies. Saint-Saens, while being French, followed this traditional style as well, not being so interested in the development of what was to become Impressionism. The Eastern European composers, Dvorik, JaniEek and Grieg, wrote their music often using folk tunes to represent a nationally colored style of music making. As for the situation in Russia, while most artists were subject to tight censorship and this was mostly the case with Prokofieff as well. He was able to avoid this to a certain degree and write works which were still highly individualistic, but the pressure of government scrutiny always lingered. Some important countries not represented in my sampling are Italy, England and Hungary. The sonatas by Debussy, Ravel, Franck, FaurC, Respighi, Elgar and Bart6k are also very important for the late 19'~a nd 20Ih century violinist's repertoire. In order to limit the project to three recitals of repertoire, I had to make the difficult decision of leaving them out. All the pieces that I selected were based on personal taste. The pianists for these recitals were David Ballena, Hyun-Jung Kim, and Sooyoung Jung. All three programs are documented in a digital audio format available on compact disc, with accompanying programs also available in digital format.