Chamber Works

Fantasie in C major for violin and piano, D934
Sonata (Sonatina) for violin & piano in D major, D384 (Op. posth. 137 No. 1)
Sonata (Sonatina) for violin & piano in A minor, D385 (Op. posth. 137 No. 2)
Sonatina (Sonatina) in G minor, D408 (Op. posth. 137 No. 3)
 w/Tasmin Little (violin), Piers Lane (piano)

Grand Duo for Violin and Piano in A Major, D574
 w/Tasmin Little (violin)

Notturno in E flat major for piano trio, D897 (Op. post.148)
 w/Tasmin Little (violin), Tim Hugh (cello)

Sonata in A minor 'Arpeggione', D821
 w/Tasmin Little (violin), Piers Lane (piano), Tim Hugh (cello)

The electrifying partnership of Tasmin Little and Piers Lane returns in this unique double-album featuring the complete works by Schubert for violin and piano, combined with the ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata and Adagio in E flat for piano trio, an unusual collection of highly emotional masterpieces. Little and Lane have enjoyed a long-standing collaboration both on stage and in recordings. They are joined by the cellist Tim Hugh, ‘a musician with a compelling insight into the creative urge behind the notes’ (The Times).

Schubert himself was a highly competent pianist and violinist, and his first pieces for violin and piano, composed when he was nineteen, have always been regarded as proper sonatas, although published as ‘sonatinas’ by Diabelli, perhaps because of their relative brevity.

There is little new to say about the monumental ‘Arpeggione’; but Schubert’s works for violin and piano are a treasured preparation for the immediacy found in both exuberant and anguished moments of this Sonata.

The Rondeau brillant, Fantasie, and Adagio are later pieces, making use of a valuable resource which was not a major ingredient in the early works: virtuosity. Gramophone has already praised the ‘complete understanding and spontaneity’ of the artists, who ‘bring moments of true musical virtuosity’ to their first album (CHAN10749).
 
"Exuberance is the keyword here, and that is precisely what Tasmin Little and Piers Lane bring to them in delightfully positive performances, bristling with vigour and with tenderness and tonal subtlety that make the music spring to life."
The Telegraph - 25th April 2015 ****

"[Little focuses] on the work's outspoken brilliance, with Lane always as a highly reactive partner'
Gramophone Magazine - June 2015

"many of his works can be counted as exercises...All the pieces on the first of these two discs can be counted as that...Tasmin Little and Piers Lane play them immaculately, with all the care that they award masterpieces...The last item is a sublime slow movement for a trio, superbly played and worth all the other things put together."
BBC Music Magazine - August 2015 ****