Violin Sonata/Melancolie

Augustin Dumay (violin) & Louis Lortie (piano)

César Franck’s passionate and sunny violin sonata has long been regarded as one of the greatest in the repertoire, and is the work of a composer at the height of his powers. Richard Strauss’s violin sonata, composed a year after Franck’s in 1887, is the work of a young composer on the cusp of discovering his mature voice; lyrical and sumptuous, it has all the hallmarks of his later style. This disc includes two Franck rarities – 'Mélancolie' and the 'Prelude, Fugue and Variation' Op.18, originally for organ, heard here in an arrangement by Augustin Dumay and Louis Lortie.

The distinguished violinist and conductor Augustin Dumay and pianist Louis Lortie – recently desribed as ‘mesmerising’ by the New York Times – are now a regular partnership, and this recording marks the duo’s debut recording. Their programme of Franck and Strauss concludes with the wonderful Heifetz arrangement of Strauss’s song ‘Auf stillem Waldespfad’.

Dumay has a busy ONYX schedule this year with a CD of four great Mozart violin sonatas, in which he is joined by Maria João Pires, and as conductor and soloist in Brahms’s Serenade No.1 and the two Beethoven Romances with his Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra.

Franck, C:
 Violin Sonata in A major
 Mélancolie for piano and violin in E minor
 Prélude, Fugue et Variation Op. 18
 arrangement by Augustin Dumay and Louis Lortie
 
Strauss, R:
 Stimmungsbilder for Piano Op. 9 : No. 1 Auf stillen Waldespfad
 transcr. Heifetz

 Violin Sonata in E flat major, Op. 18

"Augustin Dumay and Louis Lortie, ideally matched in this work, make it easy to lose oneself in the ardent Straussian reverie … Here’s a violinist who knows all the tricks – the expressiveness of a well-placed portamento, the way that carefully regulated vibrato gives every note a beating heart and so on … I will return to it [the recording] often."
International Record Review - May 2013

Make no mistake, this is artistry of the highest order. In their hands, Strauss's melodic fluency somehow manages to combine rich luxuriance with deftness of gesture.
BBC Music Magazine - June 2013 *****

"[the Franck] is full of passion and drama, while respecting the composer's detailed markings in the score...All in all, it's a splendid, thrilling performance...The full, realistic sound of the recording, notably of Lortie's bass register, allows the virtuoso character of much of the [Strauss] to make its full impact."
Gramophone Magazine - June 2013