After a retrospective recital of these works for a Danish audience with the composer, a celebrated pianist, playing the keyboard parts , he wrote to a friend that "these three works are among my very best and represent different stages in my development: Certainly Grieg took great pains with the Third Violin Sonata, which has become his most frequently heard such composition.
Composed in , after a two-decade-long break from that genre, and at the height of his fame, the score was revised before Grieg unveiled the final version in public back at the scene of his academic sojourn in Leipzig. Melvin Berger remarks that the impetus for Grieg to write what was his final sonata was his encounter with the Italian violinist Teresina Tua, a year-old phenomenon he endearingly called "the little fiddle-fairy on my troll-hill.
In any case, the violinist Adolf Brodsky joined Grieg to give the work its first performance. Hence the "wider horizon" of the Third Violin Sonata, which incorporates the Norwegian traits that come to the fore in the Second Sonata into a broader musical argument.
The passionate first movement alludes to the spirit of dark struggle by now inevitably associated with the home key of C minor. Grieg deftly stages the emergence of one thematic idea from and in contrast to what precedes. Opening with an extended piano solo, the Romanza -like central movement touches on Grieg the "folklorist" with its pristine E major melody in the outer sections, in turn framing a passionately insistent dance. A hint of folk fiddling can be heard in the animated final movement, but Grieg weds this to an exalted rhetoric that's engagingly unpredictable, even as it strives for a bright C major conclusion.
Experience the Digital Stage. Give Now Help us continue to provide the outstanding performances you've come to expect! Gift Shop Shop Now. Back Plan Your Trip. One final sostenuto statement of the first subject across three octaves leads to a cadence in D major, which leads directly into the second movement.
The second movement, in D major, is a gentle and lyrical cavatina for the violin, with the piano reduced to the role of accompanist throughout. The character is romantic and nostalgic, with the 3 8 meter creating a slow waltz-like rhythm. The melody is stated espressivo by the violin in the mid-lower register and proceeds in a calm, introspective character until a sudden two-measure modulation and crescendo lead to an impassioned climax, played in double stop thirds by the violin.
Following a brief interlude the melody is stated again an octave higher and with a somewhat less restrained character—it bears the characteristic Brahmsian marking poco forte literally "a bit loud". This time the modulation takes a different turn and the climactic theme is stated a fourth higher than before, in C Lydian dominant.
As the melodic line descends and arrives back in D major, rather than playing a simple cadence the violin suddenly takes off on a rhapsodic, improvisatory arpeggiation through D major and finally reaches the triumphant third statement of the climactic theme, a third above its previous appearance and this time still in the home key of D major. A brief echo of the opening theme then leads to a final, subdued cadence.
In contrast to the second movement, in the third movement it is the piano that takes center stage. The second statement of the theme is taken by the violin, with the melodic fragments from the violin's previous accompanying figures becoming part of the melody itself. The violin then interrupts the proceedings and comes fully into the spotlight with an impassioned, rhapsodic outburst elaborated by virtuosic arpeggios, which ends with a forceful series of chords.
The same material is presented again in D minor immediately thereafter. The piano again states the main theme, sotto voce , while the violin accompanies with pizzicato thirds.
A brief coda leads to an understated ending. The fourth and final movement returns to the sonata's home key of D minor. It is the most virtuosic of all four movements, and the frenzied, passionate character, along with the 6 8 meter, are suggestive of a tarantella.
The structure is similar to the first movement, with two contrasting subjects linked together by interludes of melodic fragments and modulations. After a four-measure introduction in which the piano states the beginning of the first subject accompanied by the violin with a virtuosic series of broken chords, the two instruments switch roles and the violin states the first subject in its entirety, a lyrical but stormy, impassioned melody, accompanied in the piano by the same broken-chord figure originally seen in the violin.
The second part of the first subject is a nervous, stammering series of melodic fragments, full of sharp dynamic contrasts. The piano then states, unaccompanied, the second subject in C major. This theme bears some resemblance to the second theme of last movement of his Piano Sonata No.
This is an elegant, stately and calm melody, played simply and straightforwardly. The violin then plays the melody and the piano adds some syncopated rhythms to the accompaniment, bringing back an echo of the movement's overall agitated character. Soon enough, right as the violin finishes playing the melody, the development section begins with tarantella material in the piano, played pianissimo and una corda.
The violin echoes the piano, and the piece moves through several modulations. A brief restatement of the first subject then ensues, followed by a remarkable interlude: It builds to a climactic restatement of the beginning of the first subject in F minor, which then leads into a virtuosic development of the tarantella -like material of the first subject.
The Complete Violin Sonatas. Leonid Kogan Legacy, Vol. The site is also available in several languages. Violin Concerto; Violin Sonata, Op. Sonate per Violino e Pianoforte.
After a return to the second part of the first subject, the second subject is restated in F major, again unaccompanied in the piano, and then again taken up by the violin. As in the exposition, it leads directly into a recapitulation of the first subject material.