Three Sonatas for Violin and Piano

As far from the avant-garde as from verismo, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (Venice, 1876-1948) always sought an ideal of timeless beauty, independent of the artistic trends of the moment. He was not, however, a conservative: rather, his poetics consisted in renouncing abstractionism in favor of a naturalness that he believed had been lost in the work of his contemporaries.

While Wolf-Ferrari’s operas continue to be performed in theaters around the world, his instrumental music has long been forgotten. This series aims to recover the aesthetic merit of a valuable and particularly beautiful repertoire.

The Sonata for Violin and Piano in G minor, Op. 1 (1895) inaugurates Wolf-Ferrari’s catalogue with Brahmsian atmospheres and a theatrical alternation of lyricism with moments of both impetuousness and solemnity. The Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 10 (1901), already original in its structure of just two movements, evokes an austere, almost religious mood with an unusually modern language. More distant from the first two, the Sonata for Violin and Piano in E major, Op. 27 (1943) presents a less passionate and more casual, sparkling character.