FREDERICK GRINKE (Violin)
ROBERT EDWARDS (Pianoforte)
IN 1908, John Ireland won a Cobbett competition against 134 competitors, with his first Sonata for violin and pianoforte. The work was published, and quickly found a place in the repertories of more enterprising violinists, and Ireland's reputation began to take lank. His next sonata, the one now to be performed, was written during the early years of the War, and was first played by Albert Sammons and William Murdoch in March, 1917.
In some strange way the music of this sonata seemed to take on the colour of a war-harassed world, and to reflect human emotions of that time very exactly. At any rate, the sonata had a great success—the Press could not speak highly enough of it, and soon every violinist was including it in his repertory. What is even more unusual for a Chamber Music work, competing offers were received from publishers, and a first edition was completely sold out before any of the copies had been printed. No work of its day had a more bracing influence on the prospects of British music.