BaL 23.06.18 - Debussy: Sonata for Violin and Piano

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30
Building a Library: Debussy's Violin Sonata by Caroline Rae.
Debussy's Sonata for Violin was written in 1917 and was intended as the fourth in a cycle of six sonatas for various instruments. It follows the sonatas that he wrote for cello, for flute and for viola and harp, but turned out to be the last major work that he would complete before cancer prematurely ended his life. The premiere took place on 5th May 1917 with Debussy himself at the piano accompanying the violinist Gaston Poulet. Debussy was profoundly affected by the First World War and his Sonata for Violin begins with an elegiac movement. The final movement, inspired by Hungarian gypsy music, does however bring the sonata to a more optimistic close.


Available versions:-

David Abel, Julie Steinberg *
Michèle Auclair, Jacqueline Bonneau *
Maria Bachmann, Adam Neiman
Joshua Bell, Jean-Yves Thibaudet *
Virgil Boutellis-Taft, Guillaume Vincent
Erasmo Capilla *
Renaud Capuçon, Bertrand Chamayou
Efi Christodoulou, Margaret Fingerhut
Kyung Wha Chung, Kevin Kenner
Kyung-Wha Chung, Radu Lapu
Marcia Crayford, Ian Brown *
Wolfgang David, David Gompper *
Elena Denisova, Susanne Lang
Angèle Dubeau, Andrew Tunis *
Alfred Dubois, Marcel Maas
Augustin Dumay, Maria João Pires
James Ehnes, Andrew Armstrong
James Ehnes, Wendy Chen *
Christian Ferras, Pierre Barbizet
Christian Ferras, Guy Bourasson (DVD)
Liza Ferschtman, Bas Verheijden *
Patrice Fontanarosa, Emile Naoumoff
Isabelle Fournier, Valérie Bernard, *
Isabelle Fournier, Julien LeBlanc *
Zino Francescatti, Robert Casadesus
Erick Friedman, André Previn
Christian Funke, Peter Rösel
Christophe Giovaninetti, Izumiko Aoyagi
Ivry Gitlis, Martha Argerich
Szymon Goldberg, Artur Balsam
Midori Gotō, Robert McDonald *
Philippe Graffin / Claire Désert
David Grimal, Georges Pludermacher
Arthur Grumiaux, Istvan Hajdu
Arthur Grumiaux, Paul Ulanowsky
Federico Guglielmo, Jolanda Violante
Lin He, Gregory Sioles *
Augustin Hadelich, Robert Kulek
Jascha Heifetz, Brooks Smith *
Jascha Heifetz, Emanuel Bay *
Petteri Iivonen, Kevin Fitz-Gerald
Noé Inui, Mario Häring (SACD)
Thomas Albertus Irnberger, Jörg Demus (SACD)
Jacques Israelievitch, Kana Matsumoto *
Janine Jansen, Itmar Golan
Danwen Jiang, Walter Cosand *
Dong-Suk Kang, Pascal Devoyon
Laurent Korcia, Michael Wendeberg
Tue Lautrup, Jacob Nielsen
Natalia Lomeiko, Olga Sitkovetsky *
Lorraine McAslan, John Blakely *
Liv Migdal, Marian Migdal (SACD)
Gwendolyn Masin, Simon Bucher
Yehudi Menuhin, Benjamin Britten
Anne Akiko Meyers, Li Jian *
Nathalia Milstein, Maria Milstein
Shlomo Mintz, Yefim Bronfman
Viktoria Mullova, Piotr Anderszewski
Anne-Sophie Mutter, Lambert Orkis
Ginette Neveu, Jean Neveu
Anders Kjellberg Nilsson, Sveinung Bjelland (SACD)
David Oistrakh, Frida Bauer
Krysia Osostowicz, Simon Crawford-Phillips
Jean-François Paillard, Jean Hubeau
Régis Pasquier, Pascal Rogé *
Itzhak Perlman, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Karolina Piątkowska-Nowick, Piotr Nowicki
Jennifer Pike, Martin Roscoe
Blake Pouliot, Hsin-I Huang
Ruggiero Ricci, Eugenis Bagnoli
Bruno Rigutto / Gerard Poulet
Trond Saeverud, Einar Røttingen
Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Carl Seemann *
Dora Schwarzberg, Martha Argerich (SACD)
Berl Senofsky, Gary Graffman*
Hagai Shaham, Arnon Erez
Ittai Shapira, Michael Abramovich
Joseph Silverstein, Michael Tilson Thomas
Isaac Stern, Alexander Zakin
Josef Suk, Jan Panenka
Joseph Szigeti, Bela Bartok *
Arve Tellefsen, Hans Pålsson *
Christian Tetzlaff, Leif Ove Andsnes
Jacques Thibaud, Alfred Cortot
Roman Totenberg, Dean Sanders
Matthew Trusler, Martin Roscoe
Lisa Ueda, Daniele Rinaldo
Ion Voicu, Monique Haas
Tamsin Waley-Cohen, Huw Watkins
Sinn Yang, Marco Grisanti
Frank Peter Zimmermann, Alexander Lonquich *


* Download only

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Many thanks, Alpie.

Looking forward to this one - a smashing work that I don't know nearly well enough, and an impressive authority doing the reviews.

https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/142277-rae-caroline

[BBMmk2]

I do not have a recording of this work, amazing though it seems, so this be good.

[gurnemanz]

I think immediately of getting to know the work via a Saga LP (note stuck-on stereo label!) with Hugh Bean and David Parkhouse which I bought in the 60s. I played it a lot at a time when I didn't own that many discs. The work was also one of my early CD purchases, a very good Naxos disc of French Violin Sonatas with Dong-Suk Kang and Pascal Devoyon.

[Mal]

Yes, it's an interesting work. I only have Chung/Lupu, which won a Penguin Rosette, and is Rough Guide top choice, so it will be interesting to here how it compares with other performances. (Third ear plumps for a historical choice: Szigeti/Bartok(!), 1940, I hope they play some of that.)

[verismissimo]

I have Oistrakh/Bauer (1966) and Hasson/Isador (1973, nla), and haven't listened to either since I don't know when.

Will put that right with pleasure.

[Beresford]

It's a very interesting work, so compact and multi-faceted, definitely one for my desert island.
My favourite recording is Peter Oundjian and William Tritt, on Musica Viva 1060. No bombast. (Why not on list?)
Peter had to give up violin, because of a strain injury to his hand, and eventually he became conductor of the RSNO.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Violin-Sonatas-Oundjian-Debussy-Ravel/dp/B0000287ZO/ref=sr_1_9?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1529055893&sr=1-9&keywords=oundjian

[Bryn]

Sadly difficult to find these days but I would mention Christophe Boulier, with Miklos Schön playing a 1921 Érard:



The Ravel Tzigane on the same disc used a reconstructed luthéal for the keyboard part.

[richardfinegold]

On these shores the Boston Symphony Chamber Players (Silverstein and MTT in this work) made a well regarded disc of the three Debussy Sonatas and Syrinx on DG. It’s been reissued a few times in the past years, including a multi channel version on Pentatone. That disc captivated me, particularly the Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp, and imprinted me to the point of never seeking another version.
The Violin Sonata was featured on a noontime recital that was broadcast live here a few weeks ago and I enjoyed it immensely. It’s feline in it’s mood changes. It would be good to hear some interesting comparisons.

[Stanfordian]

I have a few recordings of Debussy's Violin Sonata. My most recent addition from Renaud Capucon & Bertrand Chamayou recorded 2017 on Erato is very fine indeed.

[Richard Barrett]

On these shores the Boston Symphony Chamber Players (Silverstein and MTT in this work) made a well regarded disc of the three Debussy Sonatas and Syrinx on DG.

That was how I got to know all those works and it's still the recording I would go to, not having heard very many others. As far as music for violin and piano goes, I think this work is up there with a handful of other masterpieces of this medium. There are some marvellous 20th century pieces for the combination - Carter, Xenakis, Schoenberg spring to mind - but the Debussy is really something special.

[Bryn]

I have a few recordings of Debussy's Violin Sonata. My most recent addition from Renaud Capucon & Bertrand Chamayou recorded 2017 on Erato is very fine indeed.

A little surprising, perhaps, that Warner opted for Menuhin, rather than Capuçon, when compiling their complete Debussy box released this year.

[Stanfordian]

A little surprising, perhaps, that Warner opted for Menuhin, rather than Capuçon, when compiling their complete Debussy box released this year.

Hello Bryn,

Maybe so! But Menuhin as a violinist is a much more celebrated name than Capucon, although for what it's worth Menuhin wouldn't be my choice. The Capucon was only recorded recently and I guess it might have been too late the Debussy box. These big boxes are all about using up back catalogue.

[Bryn]

Hello Bryn,

Maybe so! But Menuhin as a violinist is a much more celebrated name than Capucon, although for what it's worth Menuhin wouldn't be my choice. The Capucon was only recorded recently and I guess it might have been too late the Debussy box. These big boxes are all about using up back catalogue.

Nor mine, in this work, as I hope I implied.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

On these shores the Boston Symphony Chamber Players (Silverstein and MTT in this work) made a well regarded disc of the three Debussy Sonatas and Syrinx on DG. It’s been reissued a few times in the past years, including a multi channel version on Pentatone. That disc captivated me, particularly the Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp, and imprinted me to the point of never seeking another version.

That was how I got to know all those works and it's still the recording I would go to, not having heard very many others. As far as music for violin and piano goes, I think this work is up there with a handful of other masterpieces of this medium. There are some marvellous 20th century pieces for the combination - Carter, Xenakis, Schoenberg spring to mind - but the Debussy is really something special.

- my own first recordings of these works, too (and, off-topic but seeing that rfg mentioned it the beginning of my nearly forty-year near-obsession with the "Trio" Sonata). Wonderful works, all of them - and the Boston performances do them so proud that it makes the loss of the unwritten remaining works all the greater.

(I hadn't realized until today that Debussy was younger when he died than I am now! Apart from making me feel wretchedly ancient, it hammered home how much great Music we must have lost to that cancer.)