Following her recent recording of Busoni’s Violin Concerto (CHSA 5333), Francesca Dego completes her celebration of Busoni’s anniversary year with this programme of the two sonatas for violin and piano, and the four Bagatelles. The violin sonatas, both written in the key of E minor, reflect Busoni’s grounding in the German romantic tradition. The fist sonata is closely modelled on Brahms’s Violin Sonata in D minor (just as Busoni’s Violin Concerto was inspired by that of Brahms). The second sonata, completed a decade after the first, is still recognisably romantic in style, but it has more weight, nuance, and complexity than its predecessor. Its unusual six-movement form is centred on a Bach Chorale from the ‘Anna Magdalena Notebook’, around which the rest of the music follows a circular path, the theme of the opening returning at the very end of the work. Dating from earlier than either sonata, the four Bagatelles were written for (a very young) Egon Petri, with whose mother Busoni had fallen in love. These playful works are much lighter and less serious in style than either of the sonatas, and demonstrate a certain joie de vivre that is unusual in Busoni’s output.
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