Isserlis, Duval, Shih. Schubert, Fauré, Saint-Saëns

Franz Schubert (1797-1828): “Arpeggione” Sonata in A minor, D 821(1824)

1. Allegro moderato

2. Adagio. Allegretto

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924): Violin Sonata No. 2 in E minor (1917)

1. Allegro non troppo

2. Andante

3. Allegro non troppo

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Trio No. 1 in F major (1864)

1. Allegro vivace

2. Andante

3. Scherzo: Presto

4. Allegro

The Sonata in A minor D 821 for arpeggione and piano was composed in a very prosperous period for Schubert’s instrumental production: 1824 is the year of the famous String Quartet D810 - better known as Der Tod und das Mädchen[Death and the Maiden] - but also the Quartets D 802 and the Octet D 803. This three-movement Sonata was composed about a month after Schubert’s return to Vienna from his second stay in Zseliz (present-day Želiezovce) and has some interesting features such as the instrumental ensemble for which it was composed. The ‘arpeggione’, in fact, is a stringed instrument dating back to 1823, born from a sort of hybridisation of a guitar and a cello by the Viennese luthier Johann Georg Stauffer (1778-1853). The piece was performed in November 1824 by Vinzenz Schuster, promoter of the arpeggione and presumed dedicatee of the Sonata, but it remained unpublished until 1871, when the Czech publisher Johann Peter Gotthard (pseudonym of Bohumil Pazdìrek) published it in Vienna as a piece for cello and piano, as the arpeggione was by then in disuse. Of a more conventional kind is the second Sonata Op. 108 in E minor for violin and piano by the French composer Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), who composed it some forty years after his first Sonata Op. 13, in 1917. Unlike its predecessor, the Sonata Op. 108 is much more tragic and disturbing. It was begun in the summer of 1916 and finished in 1917, a time when the composer’s youngest son was sent off to fight in the middle of the First World War. It was premiered on 10 November 1917 in a concert organised by the Société Nationale de Musique at the Salle Gaveau in Paris, where it was performed by the composer himself on piano and the violinist Louis Capet. It was published the same year by the publisher Durand with a dedication to Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, a great admirer of Fauré’s compositions. The Trio Op. 18 in F major for piano, violin and cello was composed by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) in 1864 during a trip to central France and was dedicated to a family friend, Alfred Lamarche, who looked after the composer’s mother during this period of absence. This Trio in four movements was first performed on 20 January 1865 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris by the composer himself on piano and Pablo de Sarasate on violin. After the first performance, many others followed in St. Petersburg, London, Edinburgh and Athens with musicians such as Henryk Wieniawski, Jacques Thibaud, and Louis Hasselmans, mentioned in Saint-Saëns’ epistolary. In November 1867 it was published in Paris by the publisher Jacques Maho.