C. Schumann, Beethoven & Franck: Works for Violin & Piano

Featuring

Elmira Darvarova
Shoko Inoue
Clara Schumann
Ludwig van Beethoven
César Franck

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Composer Biography

César Franck, a Belgian-born, French-trained master of cyclical form, produced his greatest masterpieces after the age of fifty-five, despite a quiet existence and reserved personality.

Composer Biography

Clara Schumann, a leading pianist of her day, composed 66 works despite raising eight children, caring for a mentally ill husband, and maintaining a strenuous performing career for 61 years.

Performer Biography

Elmira Darvarova, a Grammy-nominated concert violinist since age four, was the first and only woman concertmaster in the history of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Compositional Technique

César Franck's Violin Sonata uses a cyclical form, adapted from Franz Liszt, where themes and motifs from one movement reappear, transformed, in other movements to unify the work.

Composition History

Beethoven's Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 5 in F Major, 'Spring Sonata', was originally published with his Fourth Sonata as a single opus but later separated, possibly due to an engraver's mistake or marketing considerations.

Composition History

César Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major was written in 1886 as a wedding present for the 31-year-old virtuoso violinist Eugene Ysaÿe.

Performer Biography

Pianist Shoko Inoue, born in Tokyo, Japan, began playing piano at age three and is known for drawing audiences into her innermost thoughts on the music she performs.