Busoni: Violin Sonatas

Following her recent recording of Busoni's Violin Concerto, Francesca Dego concludes her contributions to the Busoni Jubilee Year with this program, which includes the two sonatas for violin and piano as well as the four bagatelles. The violin sonatas, both written in E minor, reflect Busoni's roots in the German Romantic tradition. The first sonata is closely modeled on Brahms' Violin Sonata in D minor (just as Busoni's Violin Concerto was inspired by Brahms' Violin Concerto). The second sonata, completed a decade after the first, is still recognizably Romantic in style, but has more weight, nuance, and complexity than its predecessor. Its unusual six-movement form centers on a Bach chorale from the "Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach," around which the rest of the music follows a circular path, with the opening theme returning at the very end of the work. The four bagatelles, which date from an earlier period than the two sonatas, were written for the (very young) Egon Petri, whose mother Busoni had fallen in love with. These playful works are much lighter and less serious than the two sonatas and bear witness to a certain joie de vivre that is unusual in Busoni's output.