Frederick Grinke (violin)
Dorothy Manley (pianoforte)
Cesar Franck 's music reflects his personal characteristics as a man with extraordinary fidelity. His kindness, idealism, mysticism, and sentimentality are all qualities that are sublimated in his music. One of his most personal and intimate works, and from a purely musical point of view possibly his most perfect, is the Violin Sonata in A, which was written in 1886 for that great Belgian violinist, Ysaye. One of its most striking characteristics is the power and inevitableness of its construction : the principal theme of each of the four well-contrasted movements derives from the opening figure heard at the beginning of the first movement. This ' cyclic ' method of construction, of which Franck was so fond, is here exploited to its utmost possibilities.