Cesar Franck dedicated his violin Sonata as a wedding present to Eugène Ysaÿe, a young Belgian who was in the process of establishing himself as one of the premier violinists in the world.
The opening movement is remarkable for its reflective mood, avoiding the contrasting elements that characterizes most 19th-century sonata movements.
Franck may have felt little need to put his themes through too many paces in the first movement, since they have more work to do in the remaining movements. He was fond of having later movements include material from earlier ones.
The piano’s churning arpeggios give the second movement a tremendous momentum that it twice loses in a broadening of tempo and a series of recollections of the first movement, until it becomes virtually static. Each time, the principal theme and its momentum are re-established.
The third movement is marked “Recitativo-Fantasia,” a hint that it belongs to two different compositional worlds: the recitative, with its to-the-point declamation of text or idea, linking larger pieces together and getting from Point A to Point B quickly; and the fantasia, which roams freely wherever the composer’s creative ideas go.
The idyllic melody of the Finale is a strict canon, with the violin imitating the piano’s right hand four beats later. In the development, its sunny disposition is a foil for the second movement’s stormy theme.
Here are two musical giants, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Martha Argerich perform this music for you:
