Grieg’s Second Violin Sonata is known as his Honeymoon Sonata composed in the three weeks after his wedding. He was only 24. It is a happy, light-hearted work verging on the boisterous in the Finale with much borrowing from Norwegian folk-music. Fauré was a youthful 27 when Saint-Saëns introduced him to the famous salon of the singer Pauline Viardot, where he soon fell in love with her youngest daughter, Marianne, for whom this Sonata was written. Its passionate opening movement releases a torrent of almost overwhelming intensity that is renewed in the Finale after a more conventionally romantic Andante and a brilliantly sophisticated Scherzo in the Parisian manner. The great composer, Giya Kancheli, died during the pandemic; he is best known for his long, dramatic scenarios. In contrast his Miniatures for violin and piano last but a few minutes, their brevity speaking a minimal yet evocative language. Think of it as a programmed encore in honour of a master, whose voice will be sorely missed.
