BRARMS'S VIOLIN and PIANO
SONATAS
Played by WILLIAM PRIMROSE (Violin) and VICTOR HELY-HUTCHINSON -
(Pianoforte)
Sonata in D Minor (Op. 108)
First and Second Movements
THIS is the last of Brahms's
Violin Sonatas (his Op. 108).
It was written in 1889, when the composer was fifty-six, and is a mature, thoughtful work, with little suggestion of display.
The First Movement is powerful and expressive by turns. In the Pianoforte part syncopation is a striking feature ; it will be felt how much of mood can bo conveyed by the musicianly use of a device that in the hands of some is merely vulgar and tedious. Note, too, at the beginning of the middle
(development) portion, how the Pianoforte repeats one octave chord for nearly fifty bars in the bass.
The Slow Movement is slow, very short, and simply eloquent, a soothing pendant to the First Movement.