Some good old violin sonatas
This programme is always filled with very special concerts. Ethnic music, medieval music, hard avant-garde, modern jazz: everything gets played. A large part of our archives though, consist of ‘ordinary’ classical repertoire: familiar compositions from the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century. This is the repertoire that draws the average visitor to concert halls – and is a repertoire we also appreciate.
Today, two concerts with violin and piano. Or more precise: one entire concert and a fragment of the second. We start with the second part of a concert from 1986, with sonatas from Mozart and Ravel, played by violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky and pianist Bella Davidovich. Two well-known evergreens are played as encore. This is all taking place in the Recital Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, where much chamber orchestra music can still be enjoyed.
The second concert is from 1996. This time, we hear the Serbian violinist Gordan Nikolić with pianist Hans Eijsackers. In between two more well-known pieces – a sonata from Schumann and one from Shostakovich – we hear Nikolić playing solo in an unfamiliar work: Reflections from composer Jurriaan Andriessen, who had just died a month before the performance. Since that time, the works of his brother Louis have received most attention, while his father Hendrik’s fame has also lived on. In this episode though, we’d like to honour Jurriaan Andriessen.
Playlist
1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Violin sonata in F major, KV 377
2. Maurice Ravel – Violin sonata in G major
3. Sergei Prokofiev – encore from Cinderella
4. Johannes Brahms – Scherzo from FAE-sonata
5. Robert Schumann – Violin sonata no. 2 in D minor, opus 121
6. Jurriaan Andriessen – Reflections for violin solo
7. Dmitri Shostakovich – Violin sonata in G major, opus 134
