Sonata in A minor "Affinities"

Instrumentation

Violin and Piano

Score, download - 0.20MB

Other Information

Four movements:

1: Quasi a piacere
2: Andante piangevole ma espansiva
3: Scherzando
4: Allegro (rondo)

For most of the piece the two performers represent two characters. The first movement is predominantly minor, the intensity heightened by the violinist´s playing high up on the string.
The ´yearning´ of the second movement is almost overwhelming.
After the passion of the second movement, the Scherzando relaxes the tension emotionally, if not technically. For the first time there is a playfulness about the music.
In the last movement we hear the two parts genuinely singing as one, embracing one another in a heady, swirling waltz whose five in a bar time signature only emphasises its breathless excitement.

There is a splendid CD recording by Jane Faulkner and Timothy Ravenscroft available from www.tutti.co.uk
- the Recording sound clips, left, are taken from this recording.

There is also a full video recording of the première in May 2013 at Stafford by Nigel Stubbs and Roy Wightman, link available left: click