Saint-Saens: Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 75

Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 75

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)

Allegro agitato – Adagio

Allegro moderato – Allegro molto

One of the most remarkable child prodigies in the history of music---performing Beethoven piano sonatas in public at the age of 5, and composing symphonies in his early teens, Camille Saint-Saens has the ironic fate of being best-known for a composition written for the amusement of friends and never published in his lifetime: the “Carnival of the Animals”! But recently there has been a resurgence of interest in Saint-Saens, and his many concertos, chamber works and orchestral compositions are regaining their position in the concert repertory.

Written in 1885, the D Minor Violin Sonata is one of the supreme tests for a violinist, combining powerful emotional expression with technical requirements which push an artist to the breaking point. The sonata is laid out in two section, each with two movements linked by a transition. The opening Allegro agitato moves restlessly between moods of melancholy and nostalgia, giving way to songlike lyrical tenderness in the Adagio which follows. A sharp change of character is heard in the graceful, skipping rhythms of the Allegro moderato which introduces a breezy zestfulness after the introspection of the opening section of the sonata. A hymn-like passage with rich chords in the piano leads to the finale, which goes off like a rocket, the violin hurtling forward in a “perpetual motion,” leading the piano on a merry chase. Themes are recalled from earlier in the work, with a moment of quiet forming contrast along the way. But the furious headlong momentum returns, concluding the sonata in a truly awesome display of roller-coaster fireworks, the violin and piano flying onward in a “triple” unison to bring the work to a sensational conclusion.

For a concert by Darwyn Apple