41. An Evening Of Confidences

Chamber music is often compared to a conversation. Not only string quartets, but also other genres intended for performing in small spaces, with a limited number of musicians and listeners, have something of a private gathering about them. Among these, the sonata for a melody instrument – most often the violin – and piano provides a space for the closest collaboration between two, usually equal, musicians. Johann Abraham Peter Schulz also wrote about the sonata, noting that, among instrumental genres, it offers the best opportunity to portray feelings without words, and that it can take on any character or emotion. Robert Schumann would certainly agree with him; in his Violin Sonata in A minor, he focused more on expression than on technical virtuosity (which does not mean the piece is easy!). He instructed that the first movement be played Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck, “with great passion,” which perfectly describes its opening theme, beginning in the lower register of the violin and climbing upward with effort, against the backdrop of a turbulent, undulating piano part. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in turn, began his Sonata in E minor in an unusual way – by having both instruments play the same theme, without accompaniment. Of particular beauty is the Menuetto, with its tender, bittersweet, music-box-like opening. The Armenian composer Edvard Baghdasaryan continued the tradition of emotional music in the 20th century, incorporating a sweeping violin solo, a lament, and a frenzied dance into his one-movement Rhapsody.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)