Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Robert Schumann

Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121, for violin and piano

 

“I didn’t like the first sonata; this is why I have written a second one, which I hope will be better.” Thus wrote Robert Schumann in 1851, in announcing to his friend Wasiliewski the composition of the Sonata No. 2 in D minor for Violin and Piano, Op. 121. Between 1851 and 1853, Schumann, whose psychological state was already fragile, composed several works in which the violin plays a principal role: in addition to the above-mentioned sonatas, it is worth mentioning at least the sublime Concerto (also in D minor), a great but misunderstood masterpiece. The Second Sonata was written in less than a week, in the autumn of 1851 – a month and a half after the First Sonata. Unlike the earlier one, which is divided into three movements, the later one is in four movements. An inexhaustible, frenetically passionate quality seems to overflow from the two outer movements; the scherzo is agitated, and the slow movement (Leise, einfach [quietly, simply]), in theme-and-variations form (the theme stated by the piano and by the violin playing pizzicato), is of a desolate, almost submissive expressiveness.

listen to Real Media recording

1. Ziemlich langsam-Lebhaft
2. Sehr lebhaft
3. Leise, einfach
4. Bewegt

Performers

Performance