Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Claude Debussy

Sonata for violin and piano in G minor

 

Completed in 1917, the Sonata for Violin and Piano was the third and last of a series of compositions that Debussy had originally intended to comprise six sonatas for various instrumental combinations. Unfortunately, Debussy died after having brought only half of his project to fruition. Of the six projected works, the only ones completed were the Sonata for Cello and Piano (1915), the Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp (1915) and the present Sonata for Violin and Piano. The composer’s intention was to turn the six-sonata cycle into a sort of homage to French musical tradition and specifically to Couperin and Rameau, great masters of the past, whose art would thus be counterbalanced, polemically, against German post-Romanticism. Although he was by then incurably ill and weighed down with discomfort and bitterness, Debussy nevertheless managed, in these three works, to find the strength to surpass himself and to surpass the style of which the two sets of preludes for piano had constituted the extraordinary final manifestation. Together with the piano etudes and the three pieces that make up En blanc et noir, for two pianos, the three sonatas bear witness to a new, final phase in Debussy’ creative career.

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1. Allegro vivo
2. Intermède (Fantasque et léger)
3. Finale (Très animé)

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Performance