Richard Strauss

CÉSAR FRANCK (1822–1890) Violin Sonata in A Violinsonate A-dur · Sonate pour violon et piano en la majeur 1 I Allegretto ben moderato 6.06 2 II Allegro 7.54 3 III Ben moderato: Recitative-Fantasia 7.35 4 IV Allegretto poco mosso 6.19 RICHARD STRAUSS (1864–1949) Violin Sonata in E flat op.18 Violinsonate Es-dur · Sonate pour violon et piano en mi bémol majeur 5 I Allegro, ma non troppo 11.19 6 II Improvisation: Andante cantabile 8.34 7 III Finale: Andante – Allegro 9.00 8 Allegretto in E AV149 E-dur · en mi majeur 1.19 9 Wiegenlied op.41 no.1 4.22 10 Waldseligkeit op.49 no.1 2.59 11 Morgen! op.27 no.4 3.51 Total timing: 69.39 James Ehnes violin Andrew Armstrong piano César Franck and Richard Strauss: Violin Sonatas Cosima, some 28 years earlier). That is to say, his themes are transformed not only within a single movement but used in modified forms throughout all four movements, giving the work Few works in the entire canon of sonatas for violin and piano stand higher in general esteem a unified structure. The first movement (Allegretto ben moderato), in modified sonata form, than Franck’s Violin Sonata in A. Indeed, now that his Symphony and Variations is sometimes seen as a long introduction, its reflective first theme providing the thematic symphoniques are heard far less frequently in concert halls than they used to be (more’s core for the whole work. In the fiery second movement (Allegro), after the piano’s statement the pity!), the Violin Sonata has a claim to be his most popular work. It was composed in of the opening theme, another is presented that reminds us of the first movement, before 1886, when Franck was 63 and at the height of his powers, as a wedding present for his friend the violin’s vehement second subject. The third movement is described as a ‘Recitative- the great Belgian virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931). Fantasia’ and reflects on the first movement as well as hinting at ideas for the finale (Allegretto poco mosso), the best-known movement, in which, famously, the main melody is heard in It is not generally known that Franck and Ysaÿe were distantly related (whether or not the canon (i.e. like a ‘repeat-after-me’ dialogue). It suggests, irresistibly, two happily married voices two were aware of this is uncertain): in 1660 a nailsmith, George Ysaÿe, married a lady named in perfect harmony – leading to a deliriously joyous ending. Marguerite Franck. Whatever the case, Franck first met Ysaÿe in 1876 at the Paris home of Ysaÿe’s erstwhile teacher Henri Vieuxtemps. Over the next few years, the two developed a Few works are so indelibly linked to their dedicatee. Ysaÿe was still playing the Sonata in close friendship, so that when Ysaÿe announced his marriage to Louise Bourdeau, the his late sixties, albeit with an impaired technical assurance. He gave his final performance daughter of an army officer, Franck was naturally invited to the wedding. This took place of his friend’s masterpiece in Paris in 1926 with the pianist Yves Nat. on 28 September 1886 in Arlon on the Belgium–Luxembourg border, but Franck was unable to attend, sending his apologies and a small parcel via his friend Charles Bordes, whose Three characteristics link Strauss’s early Violin Sonata in E flat op.18 to Franck’s: their sister-in-law, the pianist Léontine Bordes-Pène, was also present. At the wedding reception, common Germanic musical language; the use of unifying technique (Strauss uses not Bordes handed the parcel to Ysaÿe, who opened it and discovered inside the manuscript of thematic transformation but a repeated rhythmic pattern in the first and third movements the Violin Sonata dedicated to him. After a brief perusal of the music, Ysaÿe asked Mme to achieve this); and the link to marital bliss: Strauss wrote the sonata at the time when he Bordes-Pène if she would care to join him in a performance of the work. She, it turned out, had just met and fallen passionately in love with his wife-to-be, the soprano Pauline de had already familiarized herself with the score in Paris – which was just as well. The piano Ahna. part is among the most demanding in the repertoire (it shouldn’t be forgotten that Franck set out as a virtuoso pianist; in 1838, for instance, while at the Paris Conservatory he Begun only a year after Franck’s, the first two movements were finished by August 1887 with competed for the first prize in piano – Alkan was one of the jurors – playing Hummel’s the finale completed on 1 November. Strauss had played the violin since the age of eight B minor concerto brilliantly). How well Bordes-Pène coped with the task is not related – and had already written a violin concerto before he was 20, as well as a number of chamber the last movement in particular is littered with major-tenth chords – but she it was who works with prominent violin parts. Indebted to Schumann and Brahms, the Violin Sonata later joined Ysaÿe for the work’s first public performance. This was held on 16 December was to be the last of his three works in the genre after the Piano Sonata op.5 (I880–81) and 1886 in the Musée Moderne de Peinture in Brussels as part of a Franck festival. The Sonata Cello Sonata (1883), and also the last of his compositions written in standard classical form. was the last piece on the programme, and by the end of the first movement dusk had fallen. That said, elements of his later mature style are present (the turbulent main theme of the The museum banned all artificial light, so, rather than abandon the sonata, the two pressed finale, for instance, anticipates the opening of his tone poem Don Juan), the two densely on to the end playing from memory in virtual darkness. written interweaving parts creating an almost symphonic texture. Taking his cue from Liszt, Franck uses cyclic form for the sonata (it has been suggested that The opening Allegro, ma non troppo is cast in traditional sonata-allegro form and bursts some of its material derives from an earlier, lost violin sonata promised for Liszt’s daughter with melodic invention. It opens with passionate declarations from both players flowing into a tender, almost Schubertian theme followed by a third yearning melody (espressivo e César Franck und Richard Strauss: Violinsonaten appassionata) the whole movement exuding some of the drive and energy of the symphonic poems. The slow (Andante cantabile) movement is headed ‘Improvisation’ – an ineffably Wenige Werke im Kanon der Sonaten für Geige und Klavier werden allgemein höher lovely ‘song without words’ with a dramatic middle section. The third and final movement geschätzt als Francks Violinsonate A-dur. Heute, wo seine Sinfonie und seine Variations with its subdued introduction (Andante) plunges (Allegro) into a mood of heroic grandeur symphoniques (leider!) wesentlich seltener in den Konzertsälen zu hören sind, als es früher with much virtuosic writing – and it is here that one notices the rhythmic pattern alluded der Fall war, könnte die Violinsonate durchaus als sein beliebtestes Werk gelten. Sie entstand to above consisting of a dotted note followed by a semiquaver or quaver and then by a 1886, als Franck 63 Jahre alt war und auf der Höhe seiner Fähigkeiten stand. Er komponierte triplet, a device which can be found throughout this and the first movement. sie als Hochzeitsgeschenk für seinen Freund, den großen belgischen Virtuosen Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931). Strauss dedicated the Sonata to his friend and cousin Robert Pschorr. Its first public performance was given, just three days after he completed the score of Don Juan, on Es ist eine kaum bekannte Tatsache, dass Franck und Ysaÿe entfernt verwandt waren (ob die 3 October 1888 in Elberfeld (today’s Wuppertal) by Robert Heckmann (1848–1891), to whom beiden sich dessen bewusst waren, ist ungewiss): Im Jahre 1660 heiratete George Ysaÿe, ein Grieg dedicated his G minor String Quartet, and the pianist Julius Buths (1851–1920) who, by Nagelschmied, eine Dame namens Marguerite Franck. Wie dem auch sein mag, fest steht, dass the by, later conducted the European premieres of both The Dream of Gerontius and the Franck Ysaÿe zum ersten Mal 1876 im Pariser Heim von Ysaÿes ehemaligem Lehrer Henri Enigma Variations. Strauss remained fond of the Sonata. He was present at the concert in Vieuxtemps begegnete. Im Laufe der nächsten Jahre entwickelte sich zwischen den beiden Munich given in honour of his 85th birthday on 11 June 1949, just three months before his eine enge Freundschaft, so dass Franck, als Ysaÿe seine bevorstehende Heirat mit Louise death. Bourdeau, der Tochter eines Armeeoffiziers, bekanntgab, selbstverständlich zur Hochzeit eingeladen war. Diese fand am 28. September 1886 in Arlon an der belgisch-luxemburgischen Most of Strauss’s 200 or so lieder were composed between 1882 and 1905 (the first, Grenze statt. Franck war jedoch verhindert. Er ließ seine Entschuldigung und ein kleines Paket ‘Weihnachtslied’, when he was six years old). Morgen! (‘Tomorrow!’) is a setting from May von seinem Freund Charles Bordes überbringen, dessen Schwägerin, die Pianistin Léontine 1894 of words by the Scottish-born poet and anarchist John Henry Mackay (1864–1933) who Bordes-Pène, ebenfalls präsent war. Beim Hochzeitsempfang überreichte Bordes das Paket settled in Berlin in the early 1890s. Like the other songs op.27, this ravishingly beautiful love Ysaÿe, der es öffnete und darin das ihm gewidmete Manuskript der Violinsonate erblickte.

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