Violin Sonata in E flat major Op.18 (1887-8)

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Violin Sonata in E flat major Op.18 (1887-8)

1 Allegro ma non troppo 2 Andante cantabile (Improvisation) 3 Andante - Allegro

All Richard Strauss’s chamber music – the String Quartet Op.2, the Cello Sonata Op.6, the Piano Quartet Op.13, the Violin Sonata Op.18 – was written before he reached the age of 25. After that, orchestral music, opera and song were his almost exclusive interests. Completed five years after the scarcely less interesting Cello Sonata in F, the Violin Sonata in E flat displays a structural accomplishment and a stylistic individuality well in advance of anything in the earlier chamber music. The first movement, which is held together by the dramatic thematic content of the opening bar, is particularly well integrated in spite of its expansive proportions.

The Andante cantabile – which is sometimes performed independently of the rest of the work under the title Improvisation – is basically an intimately expressive song without words. A remarkable middle section magically transforms its stormy onset into a filigree of tender piano figuration that first echoes Chopin and then anticipates Der Rosenkavalier. Beginning with an anticipatory slow introduction, the last movement is based for the most part on the muscular, briskly striving theme initiated by the piano as the tempo changes to Allegro. There is other thematic material but, as in the first movement, the main source of interest is the opening theme, its first bar in particular. That investment of energy brings brings exciting rewards in the liberated coda.

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Violin Sonata in E flat major Op.18 (1887-8)

Allegro ma non troppo

Andante cantabile (Improvisation)

Andante - Allegro

Chamber music is not the first thing you associate with Richard Strauss. Indeed – apart from the Capriccio sextet which, as part of an opera, doesn’t really qualify – he wrote no chamber music during the last six decades of his life. The String Quartet Op.2, the Cello Sonata Op.6, the Piano Quartet Op.13, the Violin Sonata Op.18 were all written before he reached the age of 25, after which orchestral music, opera and song were his almost exclusive interests.

The last of the chamber works is also the most impressive. Completed five years after the scarcely less interesting Cello Sonata in F, the Violin Sonata in E flat displays a structural accomplishment and a stylistic individuality well in advance of anything in the earlier chamber music. The first movement is particularly well integrated in spite of its expansive proportions. The most significant thematic factor is the very first bar, which is not just a dramatic opening gesture but –    in its initial leap up the piano keyboard from a percussive E flat in the left hand a triplet figure high in the right – the source of much that is to follow. The violin takes an immediate interest in the triplet figure which it treats as a source of lyrical expression, going so far as to incorporate it in the upward aspiring second subject when, eventually, it comes to introduce the new theme. So, extensive and wide-ranging though it is, the development section is kept under control by innumerable allusions to the two opening motifs, the triplet figure in particular. They are still there, though now magnified in stature, in the sonorously scored coda.

The Andante cantabile is sometimes performed independently of the rest of the work under the title Improvisation, which is a fair indication of the spontaneous nature of the piece. Basically an intimately expressive song without words, it includes a middle section that magically transforms its stormy onset into a filigree of tender piano figuration that first echoes Chopin and then anticipates the Strauss of Der Rosenkavalier. The piano figuration is retained throughout the recall of the opening theme.

Beginning with an anticipatory slow introduction, the last movement is based for the most part on the muscular, briskly striving theme initiated by the piano as the tempo changes from the introductory Andante to Allegro. There is other thematic material, including a little scherzando motif, of which much is heard later, and a broadly heroic (almost Elgarian) melody, of which surprisingly little is heard later. The main source of interest, as in the first movement, is the opening theme, its first bar in particular. After a development that makes much contrapuntal play with the scherzando motif, the recapitulation takes little notice of the heroic melody and, like the liberated coda, makes the most of the energy invested in the main theme.