Violin Sonata (Elgar)

Sir Edward Elgar wrote his Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82, in 1918, at the same time as he wrote his String Quartet in E minor and his Piano Quintet in A minor. These three chamber music works were all written at "Brinkwells", the country house near Fittleworth in West Sussex that Lady Elgar had acquired for her husband to recuperate and compose in, and they mark his major contribution to the chamber music genre.[1] His Cello Concerto in E minor of 1919 completed the quartet of introspective and melancholy works that comprised Elgar's last major creative spurt before his death in 1934.

The Violin Sonata is scored for the usual combination of violin and piano, and has three movements:

1. Allegro
2. Romance: Andante
3. Allegro non troppo

Elgar's wife noted that the slow movement seemed to be influenced by the 'wood magic' or genii loci of the Fittleworth woods.

When the sonata was close to completion, Elgar offered to dedicate it to a family friend, Marie Joshua, and wrote to her: "I fear it does not carry us any further but it is full of golden sounds and I like it, but you must not expect anything violently chromatic or cubist". Marie Joshua died four days after receiving the letter, before she had had an opportunity to reply. As a tribute to her memory, Elgar quoted the dolcissimo melody from the slow movement just before the coda of the final movement.[1][2]

The Violin Sonata in E minor was completed on 15 September 1918,[2] and first performed on 13 March 1919 at a semi-public meeting of the British Music Society by Elgar's friend W. H. Reed with Anthony Bernard on piano. With Elgar present, it received its first public performance on 21 March 1919 in Aeolian Hall, with Reed and Landon Ronald.[3] Albert Sammons and William Murdoch were the sonata's greatest champions in the early years,[4] and they made a recording on 2 February 1935.[5] (It was also Sammons who made the first complete recording of Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor.) Earlier, in 1919, a recording was made by Marjorie Hayward and Una Bourne.

The Violin Sonata has never had a reputation as one of Elgar's great works, and it features irregularly on concert programs. In recent years, however, it has been recorded a number of times, and there are now over 20 recordings in the catalogue.[6] Those who have recorded it include Hugh Bean, Yehudi Menuhin, Max Rostal, Lydia Mordkovitch, Nigel Kennedy, Midori, Maxim Vengerov, Tasmin Little, Jonathan Crow, Daniel Hope and Jennifer Pike.

It was also included in the soundtrack of the anime Nodame Cantabile.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Kyoko Takezawa & Edoardo Maria Strabbioli, January 21, 2006
2. ^ a b "Kim Diehnelt, Conductor". Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
3. ^ Jerrold N. Moore, Edward Elgar. A Creative Life, Oxford 1984, pp. 738-9.
4. ^ Classical Archives
5. ^ The Music Parlour ~ Historical
6. ^ ArkivMusic

## External links

[edit]

* Violin Sonata: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
* Performance by Viviane Hagner (violin) and Tatiana Goncharova (piano) from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format

* v
* t
* e

Edward Elgar

List of compositions

Incidental|

* Diarmuid and Grania (1901)
* The Crown of India (1911–12)
* The Starlight Express (1915–16)
* The Sanguine Fan (1917)

Symphonies|

* Symphony No. 1 (1907–08)
* Symphony No. 2 (1909–11)
* Symphony No. 3 (1932–34; completed by Payne in 1997)

Orchestral|

* The Wand of Youth (1869–1907)
* Powick Asylum Music (1879–1884)
* Sevillana (1884)
* Froissart (1890)
* Sursum corda (1894)
* Serenade for Strings (1894)
* Three Bavarian Dances (1898)
* Enigma Variations (1899)
* Cockaigne Overture (1900–01)
* Pomp and Circumstance Marches (1901–30)
* Dream Children (1902)
* Introduction and Allegro (1904–05)
* In the South (Alassio) (1904–05)
* Elegy (1909)
* Falstaff (1913)
* Sospiri (1914)
* Carillon (1914)
* Polonia (1915)
* Une voix dans le désert (1915)
* Le drapeau belge (1917)
* Nursery Suite (1930)
* The Severn Suite (1930)

Concertante|

* Violin Concerto (1901–10)
* Romance (1910)
* Cello Concerto (1918–19)

Chamber|

* Duett for trombone and double bass (1887)
* Idylle (1883)
* Salut d'Amour (1888)
* Chanson de Nuit (1897)
* Chanson de Matin (1899)
* Violin Sonata (1918)
* String Quartet (1918)
* Piano Quintet (1918–19)

Keyboard|

* Organ Sonata (1898)
* Concert Allegro (1901)

Choral|

* The Black Knight (1889–93)
* From the Bavarian Highlands (1895–96)
* The Dream of Gerontius (1899–1900)
* The Kingdom (1901–06)
* Coronation Ode (1902)
* The Apostles (1902–03)
* The Music Makers (1912)
* The Spirit of England (1915–17)

Vocal|

* "The Language of Flowers" (1872)
* "The Self Banished" (1875)
* "A War Song" (1884)
* Seven Lieder
* "Like to the Damask Rose" (1892)
* "Queen Mary's Song" (1889)
* "A Song of Autumn" (1892)
* "The Poet's Life" (1892)
* "Through the Long Days" (1885)
* "Rondel" (1894)
* "The Shepherd's Song" (1892)
* "Is she not passing fair?" (1886)
* "As I laye a-thynkynge" (1888)
* "The Wind at Dawn" (1888)
* "After" (1900)
* "A Song of Flight" (1900)
* Sea Pictures
* "Sea Slumber Song"
* "In Haven"
* "Sabbath Morning at Sea"
* "Where Corals Lie"
* "The Swimmer" (1897–99)
* "Dry those fair, those crystal eyes" (1899)
* "Always and Everywhere" (1901)
* "Come, Gentle Night!" (1901)
* "In the Dawn" (1901)
* "Speak, Music!" (1901)
* "There are seven that pull the thread" (1901)
* "In Moonlight" ((1904)
* "Follow the Colours" (1907)
* "Pleading" (1908)
* "A Child Asleep" (1909)
* "Oh, soft was the song" (1910)
* "Was it some Golden Star?" (1910)
* "Twilight" (1910)
* "The Chariots of the Lord" (1914)
* "Fight for Right" (1916)
* "Inside the Bar" (1917)
* "The Blue Mountains" (1924)
* "The Immortal Legions" (1924)
* Pageant of Empire (1924)
* "XTC" (1930)

Other topics|

* Dorabella Cipher
* Elgar Birthplace Museum
* The Elgar Sisters
* Elgar Society
* Elgar Uplands
* Elgar (film)

Family|

* August Jaeger
* Alice Elgar

* Category

Portal:

* Classical Music

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz work

|

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template