Availability

Piano score and part 0-571-51758-7 on sale

Programme Notes

This three movement work is above all a sonata for violin and piano, not a sonata for violin with piano accompaniment. It was written during my final years at school in London. The first and last movements, though often changeable in mood, follow a slow-fast-slow structural pattern, in which reflective, slow duos contrast with more dynamic interaction between the instruments. The central scherzo, which exploits a few unexpected sonorities, maintains its quick tempo as it builds towards an explosive conclusion. The first performance was given - as part of a school concert - by Charles Peebles and myself. The first professional performance followed almost twenty years later at the Romerbad Musiktage, Badenweiler, in March 1996, with Irvine Arditti and Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

© George Benjamin, 1996

Sonata for Violin and Piano

Purcell Room, Southbank Centre (London, United Kingdom)

Park Lane Group

Sonata for Violin and Piano

11.30am

Wigmore Hall (London, United Kingdom)

Carolin Widmann/Mario Formenti

Sonata for Violin and Piano

No Venue (Badenweiler, Baden-Württemberg, Germany)

Carolin Widmann/Claire Désert

Sonata for Violin and Piano

No Venue (Palencia, Spain)

Ananda Sukarlan/Jagdish Mistry

Sonata for Violin and Piano

No Venue (Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom)

Ruth Rogers/Sarah Nicolls