Violin Sonatas

The three violin sonatas on this disc are by composers who had enjoyed a direct professional relationship during the period between the two world wars, mainly through their involvement on the teaching staff at the Moscow Conservatoire. Despite being one of Nikolai Myaskovsky’s most appealing and approachable later works, his Violin Sonata, Op. 70 remains rarely performed in concert. The work begins with a wistful first movement, followed by the final movement containing a series of 12 Variations on a theme eloquent and restrained by turns. The following work is by a student, colleague and friend of Myaskovsky, Vassarion Shebalin. Formed in the classically arrayed four-movement design, it shows the composer’s musical language at its clearest and most direct. The final work on this album is by the composer Vasily Nechayev who is hardly known outside of Soviet music circles. His Sonata, Op. 12, shows Nechayev was aware of stylistic developments pursued by Bartók and Prokofiev in its richly whole-tone harmonies and its motoric rhythms.