DOROTHEA HELMRICH (contralto)
ALPHONSE ONNOU (violin)
STEFAN ASKENASE (pianoforte)
These seven songs, out of twelve known simply as Liederkreis (Song-cycle), are settings of verses, having no immediate connection with one another, by the German poet, Eichendorff. The verses are concerned with a kind of native mysticism, and most of them are coloured with a chivalrous sentiment. This cycle, written a little before the Frauenliebc and Dichterliebe groups, is essentially lyrical and vigorously youthful. The eleventh song, ' In the Forest', is numbered among Schumann's masterpieces of song-writing.
The violin Sonata in A is the only work in that form composed by Franck. He wrote it for the great violinist Ysaye, for whose talent Franck had the most enthusiastic admiration, and Madame Bordes-Pene, a pianist of great promise who died young.
Three main themes form the nucleus of the melodic material used in all four movements of the work, which differs from the pure sonata form only in the third and fourth movements. The third, entitled Recitativo-Fantasia, is characterised by free development in the masterly manner of Franck ; while the fourth, in rondo form, has again its own individual construction. The sonata begins quietly, proceeds full of passion and beauty, and ends with the utmost brilliance.
The first performance, in 1886, by Ysaye and Madame Bordes-Pt-ne, took place in a picture gallery in Brussels. Placed at the end of the programme, it grew too dark to see the music, and since no lights of any sort were allowed in the gallery, it was decided to end the concert and dismiss the audience. Ysaye, however, would agree to no such arrangement. He called the audience back, and in the, by now, completely darkened room the two artists played through the last three movements from an unprepared memory with a fire and passion as though inspired.