Violin Sonata in D major RV10 (c 1710)

realised by Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936)

Moderato

Allegro moderato

Largo

Vivace

Respighi was not, in the ordinary sense of the word, a progressive composer. He was, on the other hand, forward in looking back. Few composers in the first decade of the 20th century had much interest in the music of the Italian baroque but, as a pupil of the musicologist Luigi Torchi at the Liceo musicale in Bologna, Respighi was brought up with it. He was eager to promote it, too, notably in his pioneering version of Monteverdi’s Lamento d’Arianna in 1908. From about the same time his realisations of violin sonatas by Locatelli, Porpora, Tartini, Valentini, Veracini, and Vivaldi were among the first of their kind.

So while Kreisler was faking these things, Respighi was writing violin-and-piano versions of authentic sonatas which, scored as they were for violin and figured bass, were otherwise inaccessible to the average musician of the day. Sometimes, it must be admitted, Respighi’s realisations sound not entirely unlike Kreisler’s inventions, as in the frankly romantic a fantasia interpretation of the Moderato prelude to the present Sonata in D. Where Respighi had the advantage over Kreisler was in his skill in writing for piano and engaging the two instruments in duo-sonata fashion. The Allegro moderato increases in interest for the pianist as it goes on and, after a slow movement focused an expressive violin line, the closing Vivace is a brilliant though not unduly immodest display of contrapuntal writing in two or three real parts.