Violin Sonata in A minor, Op.105

Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck

Allegretto

Lebhaft

Although Schumann was far from happy as municipal music director in Düsseldorf - where he and Clara and the children had settled in 1850 - he did enjoy the friendship of the violinist he had appointed as leader of the orchestra there. A pupil of Mendelssohn and Ferdinand David and a former member of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Josef von Wasielewski was clearly a like-minded musician. It was with Wasielewski in mind that Schumann wrote the two Violin Sonatas, Op.105 and Op. 121, and it was he who joined Clara in the private first performances of these works in the Schumanns’ music room in 1851.

Aware of the problems Schumann was experiencing with the local authority in 1851, Wasielewski was probably not surprised by the sombre tone and worried attitude of the first movement of the Sonata in A minor. The restless piano figuration, against which the violin presents the impulsively syncopated main theme, persists almost throughout: its activity is reduced only for the scarcely more relaxed second subject and for the coda, where a page of passionate violin bravura sustains the momentum.

If the gently nostalgic and sometimes even playful Allegretto in F major seems slightly disingenuous in the context, the quietly expressive first episode in F minor, approached by an apparently casual but touching modulation, could be nearer to the truth of the situation. Certainly, in spite of a second subject which cheerfully interrupts the prevailing moto perpetuo figuration, the last movement is not inclined to compromise. As an allusion to the opening theme of the work confirms shortly before the end, the anxiety which inspired the first movement is neither stilled nor forgotten.

The first public performance of the Sonata in A minor was given by Ferdinand David with Clara Schumann in Leipzig in March 1852.

Sonata in A minor Op.105 (1851)

arranged for viola and piano

Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck

Allegretto

Lebhaft

Although Schumann was far from happy as municipal music director in Düsseldorf - where he and Clara and the children had settled in 1850 - he did enjoy the friendship of the leader of the orchestra there. A pupil of Mendelssohn and Ferdinand David in Leipzig and a member of the Gewandhaus Orchestra when Schumann invited him to take up the post in Düsseldorf, Josef von Wasielewski was clearly a like-minded musician. It was with Wasielewski in mind that Schumann wrote the two Violin Sonatas Op.105 and Op.121 - though neither of them is actually dedicated to him - and it was he who joined Clara in the first private performances of these works in the Schumanns’ music room in 1851. The first public performance was given by Ferdinand David with Clara in Leipzig in March 1852.

Aware of the problems Schumann was experiencing with the local authority in Düsseldorf in 1851 - he was, according to his own confession, “very angry with certain people” - Wasielewski was probably not surprised by the sombre tone and worried attitude of the first movement of the Sonata in A minor. Bearing those features in mind, he might even have agreed that the introspective sound of the viola could give it an advantage over the violin here. The restless piano figuration, against which the string instrument presents the impulsively syncopated main theme, persists almost throughout, its activity only momentarily reduced for the scarcely more relaxed second subject. The new theme has little influence on the development and, although it makes a more positive impression when it is recapitulated in A major, it is finally swept away in a coda of passionately angry bravura.

If the gently nostalgic and sometimes even playful Allegretto in F major seems slightly disingenuous in the context, the quietly expressive first episode in F minor, approached by an apparently casual but touching modulation, could be nearer to the truth of the situation. Certainly, in spite of a second subject which cheerfully interrupts the prevailing moto perpetuo figuration, the Lebhaft last movement is not inclined to compromise. As a dramatically hushed allusion to the opening theme of the work confirms shortly before the end, the anxiety which inspired the first movement is neither stilled nor forgotten.

Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck

Allegretto

Lebhaft

Although Schumann was far from happy as municipal music director in Düsseldorf - where he and Clara and the children had settled in 1850 - he did enjoy the friendship of the leader of the orchestra there. A pupil of Mendelssohn and Ferdinand David in Leipzig and a member of the Gewandhaus Orchestra when Schumann invited him to take up the post in Düsseldorf, Josef von Wasielewski was clearly a like-minded musician. It was with Wasielewski in mind that Schumann wrote the two Violin Sonatas Op.105 and Op.121 - though neither of them is actually dedicated to him - and it was he who joined Clara in the first private performances of these works in the Schumanns’ music room in 1851. It was also he who wrote the Schumann biography which so upset Clara when it was published, a year after the composer’s death, in 1857.

Aware of the problems Schumann was experiencing with the local authority in Düsseldorf in 1851 - he was, according to his own confession, “very angry with certain people” - Wasielewski was probably not surprised by the sombre tone and worried attitude of the first movement of the Sonata in A minor. The restless piano figuration, against which the violin presents the impulsively syncopated main theme, persists almost throughout, its activity only momentarily reduced for the scarcely more relaxed second subject. The second subject has little influence on the development and, although it makes a more positive impression when it is recapitulated in A major, it is finally swept away in a coda of passionately angry violin bravura.

If the gently nostalgic and sometimes even playful Allegretto in F major seems slightly disingenuous in the context, the quietly expressive first episode in F minor, approached by an apparently casual but touching modulation, could be nearer to the truth of the situation. Certainly, in spite of a second subject which cheerfully interrupts the prevailing moto perpetuo figuration, the Lebhaft last movement is not inclined to compromise. As a dramatically hushed allusion to the opening theme of the work confirms shortly before the end, the anxiety which inspired the first movement is neither stilled nor forgotten.

The first public performance of the Sonata in A minor was given by Ferdinand David with Clara Schumann in Leipzig in March 1852. By then - dissatisfied, according to Wasielewski, with his First Violin Sonata - Schumann had completed the much more ambitious Second Violin Sonata in D minor Op.121.