Maria Ioudenitch & Roman Borisov

Maria Ioudenitch presents three different approaches to the violin sonata, accompanied by Roman Borisov on piano. Sergei Prokofiev was inspired by the music of Georg Friedrich Handel when composing his first sonata for violin and piano. He wrote the sonata during World War II, combining chamber music intimacy with quasi-symphonic expression. Ten years earlier, Claude Debussy also created a sonata for violin and piano while World War I raged in Europe. With this work, Debussy made an emphatic declaration of war against the German Romantic music tradition: "Nothing can excuse us for forgetting the tradition of the works of Rameau, which is almost unique in the richness of its brilliant ideas," he wrote at the time. One of the figures from whom Debussy sought to artistically distance himself was Johannes Brahms. In his Violin Sonata No. 3, he incorporated, among other things, musical impressions from Hungarian Csárdás bands that played for dancing in the Vienna Prater.

Program
Lili Boulanger // 1893–1918
Nocturne for Violin and Piano // 1911
Cortège for Violin and Piano // 1914

Sergei Prokofiev // 1891–1953
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80 // 1938–46
// Intermission //

Claude Debussy // 1862–1918
Sonata for Violin and Piano in G minor, L. 140 // 1917

Johannes Brahms // 1833–1897
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 // 1886–88

Performers
Maria Ioudenitch | Violin
Roman Borisov | Piano