- Composer: Frederick Delius
- Audio CD (28 Jun 1997)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: CD
- Label: Sony Music Classical
- ASIN: B0000024EU
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 228,847 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product details |
Track Listings
| 1. Sonata In B op.posth |
| 2. Sonata No.1 (1905-14) |
| 3. Sonata No.2 |
| 4. Sonata No.3 (1930) |
| 5. Allegro con brio |
| 6. Andante molto tranquillo |
| 7. Allegro con moto |
| 8. With easy movement - slow |
| 9. With vigour and animation |
| 10. Con moto - lento - molto vivace |
| 11. Slow |
| 12. Andante scherzando - meno mosso - Tempo primo |
| 13. Lento - Con moto - Tranquillo - Tempo primo |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
By the time of these February 1997 sessions, Tasmin Little had already revealed herself as a Delian of the first rank with her recordings of Violin and Double concertos (the latter with cellist Raphael Wallfisch and now reissued on Classics for Pleasure), and she forms an inspirational partnership here with Piers Lane. Not only do these eloquent performers consistently convey the full poetic rapture of this heartwarming music, even more crucially they never lose sight of its formidable organic thread. Little's memorable reading of the Third Sonata enjoys a particular authority in that, as a 13-year-old student, she was personally tutored on interpretative and stylistic matters by Delius's amanuensis Eric Fenby (whose involvement with this of all works could hardly be more profound). Of course, Fenby's own Unicorn-Kanchana versions of Snatas Nos. 1-3 with that much-missed fiddler Ralph Holmes carry a very special emotional frisson, but the intuitive gifts of Little and Lane are not in doubt. Even the very early B major sonata from 1892 (a piece apparently much admired by Grieg) springs to exuberant life on this occasion. The recordings are very well balanced and, fortunately, the generous church acoustic doesn't preclude the necessary intimacy. A truly wonderful release. --Andrew Achenbach
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A wonderful disk of little-known - some would say undeservedly neglected - pieces for those who love Delius, English pastoral music or French / English chamber music. Although there is a late summer feeling to them, this is not relaxing music: beneath the peaceful exterior these sonatas are brimming with nostalgia, passion and yearning. Being more intimate, they are also more raw than Delius' orchestral music, yet just as exuberant. Rich, rapturous, resplendent music, played with conviction as if the musicians had written it themselves. This is a CD that will repay careful listening. The ear soon adjusts to the wide dynamic range and large acoustic. One of my most-played CDs - highly recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
beautiful insightful performances
12 Aug 1999
Format:Audio CD
The Delius Violin Sonatas had been notably underrecorded until just a couple of years ago. Since then several versions have appeared but this one by Tasmin Little gets to the heart of the music like none of the others and makes the very most of their delights.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
A wonderful disk
8 Sep 2005
Format:Audio CD
A wonderful disk of little-known - some would say undeservedly neglected - pieces for those who love Delius, English pastoral music or French / English chamber music. Although there is a late summer feeling to them, this is not relaxing music: beneath the peaceful exterior these sonatas are brimming with nostalgia, passion and yearning. Being more intimate, they are also more raw than Delius' orchestral music, yet just as exuberant. Rich, rapturous, resplendent music, played with conviction as if the musicians had written it themselves. This is a CD that will repay careful listening. The ear soon adjusts to the wide dynamic range and large acoustic. One of my most-played CDs - highly recommended.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Perfection
12 Oct 2008
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I first encountered the music of Delius in a college freshman music appreciation class where the professor played excerpts from Hassan. I was no stranger to serious music, having begun playing the violin when I was five years old, but I was stunned by the tonalities and the emotional thrust of the Delius music and began a lifelong quest for recordings. Unfortunately, his better works were hard to find; the pieces most commonly recorded were the relatively empty Brigg Fair and On Hearing the First Cuckoo of Spring--gentle easy listening, but not much to grasp on to. Paris was interesting, but I rejoiced with every hearing of Sea Drift, especially the wonderful recording by Sir Thomas Beecham with Bruce Boyce, baritone, and the BBC choir.
Now, after many years, Delius' deeper music seems finally to be gaining the regard among performing musicians that it so richly deserves. This recording of the four violin sonatas by Tasmin Little and Piers Lane is a wonderful example. Tasmin's work with the Delius materials over the past decade and more could be a major factor in the Delius renaissance.
These four sonatas span the life work of Delius--the first one in his youth and never published until after his death, rejected by Delius himself as he matured, and the last one in his old age, blind and in a wheelchair dictating to a secretary.
The first Sonata on this CD, the "B" Op. Post., is essentially standard late 19th Century French Romantic with some interesting inventions here and there and in the second movement a strong hint of the Delius to come. Nice, but nothing special, useful to understand Delius' development over the subsequent decades. (Actually, my wife likes this one the best. She plays Debussy on the piano.) With Sonata No. 1, the second on this album, we are thrust immediately into the complex depths of Delius' musical genius with its improbable chord progressions and melodic leaps with frequent resort to whole tone, chromatic and octatonic scales. Sonata No. 2 pulls back slightly in sections toward more conventional ground. Sonata No. 3 opens with a surprising simplicity then grows into more typical complex Delius forms.
This is not easy-listening music. It requires strenuous attention to receive its benefits. But the rewards are immense.
Tasmin Little and Piers Lane execute their assignment with impressive sensitivity and understanding. The music is for the most part not technically demanding (though one has to wonder what is the purpose of writing in five sharps, then adding copious accidental sharps on top of those), but what it requires in sensitive musicianship far outweighs the technical demands. It would seem that Tasmin was born to this music. Every nuance rings with perfection.
Now, after many years, Delius' deeper music seems finally to be gaining the regard among performing musicians that it so richly deserves. This recording of the four violin sonatas by Tasmin Little and Piers Lane is a wonderful example. Tasmin's work with the Delius materials over the past decade and more could be a major factor in the Delius renaissance.
These four sonatas span the life work of Delius--the first one in his youth and never published until after his death, rejected by Delius himself as he matured, and the last one in his old age, blind and in a wheelchair dictating to a secretary.
The first Sonata on this CD, the "B" Op. Post., is essentially standard late 19th Century French Romantic with some interesting inventions here and there and in the second movement a strong hint of the Delius to come. Nice, but nothing special, useful to understand Delius' development over the subsequent decades. (Actually, my wife likes this one the best. She plays Debussy on the piano.) With Sonata No. 1, the second on this album, we are thrust immediately into the complex depths of Delius' musical genius with its improbable chord progressions and melodic leaps with frequent resort to whole tone, chromatic and octatonic scales. Sonata No. 2 pulls back slightly in sections toward more conventional ground. Sonata No. 3 opens with a surprising simplicity then grows into more typical complex Delius forms.
This is not easy-listening music. It requires strenuous attention to receive its benefits. But the rewards are immense.
Tasmin Little and Piers Lane execute their assignment with impressive sensitivity and understanding. The music is for the most part not technically demanding (though one has to wonder what is the purpose of writing in five sharps, then adding copious accidental sharps on top of those), but what it requires in sensitive musicianship far outweighs the technical demands. It would seem that Tasmin was born to this music. Every nuance rings with perfection.
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