HENRY HOLST (violin)
R. J. FORBES (pianoforte)
The Violin Sonata in D minor is one of Brahms's most powerful and dramatic works. It is designed, as Sir Donald Tovey points out, 'on a symphonic scale and is obviously as full of effortless power as any conceivable quartet or sextet'. It is a sonata for two instruments in the real sense of the word, in that the music is conceived in terms of both the violin and piano, instead of in terms of a solo violin with piano accompaniment. Here we see Brahms's musical imagination in its most inspired flights, and each of the four movements is a supreme revelation of his manifold genius.