French Violin Sonatas

This is a typically well-constructed and enticing recital from Tasmin Little and Martin Roscoe. Guillaume Lekeu is one of the 'what ifs' of French music...The impassioned outer movements understandably... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2015, More…

Release Date: 3rd Nov 2014
Catalogue No: CHAN10812
Label: Chandos
Length: 72 minutes

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Lekeu: Violin Sonata in G major

32:30

$9.45

$11.40

$16.50

Tasmin Little (violin), Martin Roscoe (piano)
Recorded: 1-3 July 2013
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk

I. Tres modere - Vif et passionne

11:43

$3.15

$3.80

$5.50

II. Tres lent

10:28

$3.15

$3.80

$5.50

III. Tres anime

10:19

$3.15

$3.80

$5.50

Ravel: Violin Sonata in A minor 'Sonate posthume'

14:23

$3.15

$3.80

$5.50

Tasmin Little (violin), Martin Roscoe (piano)
Recorded: 1-3 July 2013
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk

Fauré: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major, Op. 13

26:02

$6.30

$7.50

$11.10

Tasmin Little (violin), Martin Roscoe (piano)
Recorded: 1-3 July 2013
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk

I. Allegro molto

8:45

$2.10

$2.50

$3.70

II. Andante

7:36

$2.10

$2.50

$3.70

III. Allegro vivo

4:12

$1.05

$1.25

$1.85

IV. Allegro quasi presto

5:29

$1.05

$1.25

$1.85

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Our exclusive Chandos artist Tasmin Little explores three great French violin sonatas, after a much revered recording of British violin sonatas in 2013.

She and pianist Martin Roscoe have enjoyed a long standing chamber music partnership. On this album they immerse themselves in music of three of the best late-nineteenth-century French composers: Gabriel Fauré, Guillaume Lekeu, and Maurice Ravel.

Written in 1875, shortly after his thirtieth birthday, the Sonata in A major by Gabriel Fauré has often been regarded as his first masterpiece. And despite having faced a daunting reception, it has become a reference in the romantic repertoire.

The first two movements, serious and solemn, are followed by light-footed, airy movements, the final Allegro drawing energy from Fauré's favourite off-beat chordal accompaniment.

As the last arrival in the ‘Bande à Franck’, Guillaume Lekeu, in his twenty-fou-ryear-long life, wrote some fifty pieces of ‘tremulous emotion’, of which the Violin Sonata, of 1892 – 93, is by far the best known.

The opening movement of an unfinished early violin sonata by Ravel was not published until 1975, his centenary year, and the first known modern performance took place that year in New York. The movement convincingly unites different styles, from Fauré’s in the modal opening to Franckian chords in the development passage that leads back to the tune over chromatically descending triads à la Debussy, not to mention a second theme, over pulsing quavers, that clearly belongs to the Gounod / Massenet tradition.

Reviews

February 2015

This is a typically well-constructed and enticing recital from Tasmin Little and Martin Roscoe. Guillaume Lekeu is one of the 'what ifs' of French music...The impassioned outer movements understandably evoke the spirit of Franck's golden period, [Little and Roscoe] masterfully pacing the ebb and flow of the tension.

December 2014

Tasmin Little and Martin Roscoe give a passionate, full-blooded performance of the Lekeu Sonata, taking on board the 22-year-old composer's lofty tone and high ambitions. Their approach is aided by a fine, generous recording.

December 2014

The emotion of the work is evident from the first phrase, beautifully poised between expansiveness and forward motion as played by Little. It is captured in gloriously full sound, underpinning the Brahmsian quality of the piano writing...Little draws the loveliest of tones from her Guadagnini violin.

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