British Violin Sonatas, Vol. 1

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Little's style...[is] happily free of any hint of narcisstic self-regard, so that nothing stands in the way of her forthright and superb communication skills...Little's playing has ceaseless... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2013, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 3rd Jun 2013
Catalogue No: CHAN10770
Label: Chandos
Length: 61 minutes

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Ferguson, H: Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 10

Work length17:04

$3.00

$3.90

$5.25

Tasmin Little, Piers Lane
Recorded: 13-15 December 2012
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, UK

I. Andante

Track length5:51

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Adagio

Track length5:14

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Allegro vivo

Track length5:59

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Britten: Suite, Op. 6

Work length15:54

$5.00

$6.50

$8.75

Tasmin Little, Piers Lane
Recorded: 13-15 December 2012
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, UK

I. Introduction. Andante maestoso

Track length0:29

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. March. Allegro alla marcia

Track length2:36

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Moto perpetuo. Allegro molto e con fuoco

Track length3:04

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Lullaby. Lento tranquillo

Track length4:37

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

V. Waltz. Alla valse, Vivace e rubato

Track length5:08

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Walton: Violin Sonata

Work length22:45

$6.00

$7.70

$10.50

Tasmin Little, Piers Lane
Recorded: 13-15 December 2012
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, UK

I. Allegro tranquillo

Track length11:17

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

II. Variazioni

Track length11:28

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Walton: Two Pieces for Violin and Piano

Work length5:45

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Tasmin Little, Piers Lane
Recorded: 13-15 December 2012
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, UK

I. Canzonetta

Track length3:31

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Scherzetto

Track length2:14

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

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About

Enjoying a flourishing career that has taken her to every continent and major orchestra around the world, the violinist and exclusive Chandos artist Tasmin Little continues to champion seldom-performed repertoire. This disc marks the beginning of her new survey of British violin sonatas with the pianist Piers Lane.

As a composer, Howard Ferguson had a preoccupation with technical finesse, which meant that he was a slow and meticulous composer. He produced only twenty works before he decided to abandon composition altogether in 1959, as a result of his lack of sympathy with the modernist trends of the day. Ferguson wrote his Violin Sonata No. 2 for the Israeli violinist Yfrah Neaman. The sense of anxiety that is portrayed throughout is highly characteristic of the works by this composer, as is the intensely economical motivic workings.

William Walton wrote his Violin Sonata as a gesture of gratitude to Yehudi Menuhin for having lent him 1000 Swiss Francs to pay for medical treatment for his partner at the time, Alice Wimborne, who had fallen ill while they were in Lucerne. The sonata is unusual in its two-movement format. Both movements are substantial, and this may explain why Walton dropped the two-minute Scherzetto which he originally had sandwiched between them. The Scherzetto was later published separately as one of the Two Pieces for Violin and Piano, the other being a Canzonetta based on a mediaeval troubadour theme. The Two Pieces were dedicated to Vivien Leigh and her husband, Laurence Olivier.

Long before Benjamin Britten became famous as an opera composer, his aptitude for composition was evident in a series of early instrumental works marked by their technical brilliance, few more virtuosic than his Suite, Op. 6. While this is true, Britten himself seemed undecided about the structure of this work, which went through numerous reconsiderations, the last of which he prepared just eight months before his death.

Tasmin Little is an Ambassador for The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts, President of the European String Teachers’ Association, and a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has further received Honorary Degrees from the universities of Bradford, Leicester, Hertfordshire, and the City of London. In great demand as a chamber musician, Piers Lane has given sold-out recitals at the Wigmore Hall, London, and the opening recital at the new Melbourne Recital Centre; he has long-standing partnerships with Tasmin Little, the soprano Cheryl Barker, baritone Peter Coleman-Wright, and violist and composer Brett Dean.

Reviews

September 2013

Little's style...[is] happily free of any hint of narcisstic self-regard, so that nothing stands in the way of her forthright and superb communication skills...Little's playing has ceaseless and strong support from Lane's accompaniments

August 2013

This performance is finely paced, with a sense of momentum that allows the listener to appreciate Walton's mastery of large-scale form, and Tasmin Little's full, expressive tone seems ideally suited to the work's sinuous melodies.

18th September 2013

[Little] and Lane traverse the [Ferguson] sonata’s dramatic and lyrical paths with conspicuous excellence...a splendidly recorded and documented disc. It’s good to see Little and Lane - Britain’s best ambassadors for native violin sonatas - exploring ever further afield.

9th June 2013

There are actually two sonatas here, and a suite: Britten’s Op 6, a brilliant early essay, satiric yet searingly lyrical — stylistic extremes well met by Little.

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