Jacques Leguerney: Sonatine for piano and violin
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SKU: A0.533314
Composed by Jacques Leguerney. 20th Century,Concert,Standards. 46 pages. Musik Fabrik Music Publishing #2343069. Published by Musik Fabrik Music Publishing (A0.533314).The Sonatine pour piano et violon, written in 1944, was first performed in May of that year in a private concert at the Rue La Fontaine (16ème arrondissement) in Paris with violinist Odette Malézieux and Leguerney’s friend and former piano teacher, Thérèse Cahen, at the piano. Malézieux was a distinguished chamber musician, composer, and a member of a family known for its involvement in artistic and intellectual pursuits. This was one of her last appearances as she died at the end of the same
month. This was also quite probably Thérèse Cahen's final concert: she was deported to Auchwitz at the end of July 1944.
The public premiere of the Sonatine pour piano et violon took place at the American Cultural Center in Paris on 25 February 1959, interpreted by French violinist Michel Chauveton with French composer Jean-Michel Damase at the piano. Chauveton included this work often in the repertoire of his recitals, in Denmark, Spain and in Italy, where he performed with pianist Marten Bon. Leguerney's Sonatine pour piano et violon, coupled with Sonata, opus 105 by Robert Schumann, was recorded in 1961 by Michel Chauveton and Jean-Michel Damase for the Lumen label (MD. 2.441).
One should note that the Sonatine uses many of the same harmonic inflections in its melodic lines as does Leguerney’s vocal repertoire: chromaticism, melismas, disjunctive intervals, and accompanying harmonies that are enriched and unexpected. Henri Sauguet’s comment that Leguerney’s music resembled Hermes china could be applied to this work, which contains all of the beauty and elegance of Leguerney’s musical language in a jewel-box setting. This use of music as a combination of the delicate and powerful sides of his nature not only served Leguerney for his chamber music and song repertoire, but was expanded with great virtuosity into larger forms, including his two ballets, Endymion and La Vénus Noire.
The Sonatine pour piano et violon was later dedicated to Anne and Patrick Choukroun, friends and supporters of Leguerney and his oeuvre. Patrick is the author of a doctoral dissertation on Leguerney’s life and work, as well as co-author of Interpreting the Songs of Jacques Leguerney: A Guide for Study and Performance (Pendragon Press).
From Emile Vuillermoz’s liner notes of the 1961 Lumen recording
The sonatina is a charming genre that should be used more often. In its reduced format, it brings us the essential qualities of the classical sonata, all the while lightening its formal obligations which, too often, indiscreetly expose its scholastic armature. The opposition of two well-chosen themes, a short development and a re-exposition are sufficient for an accomplished composer to give the necessary homage to the form, all the while allowing pure musical invention to have more spontaneity and liberty. Ravel illustrated this formula with a pianistic masterwork and we congratulate Jacques Leguerney's enrichment of the violin repertoire with a score inspired by the same principles. One can only reproach him for having left a work composed in 1944 to languish in his desk!
His sonatina is an exceptional achievement. From the outset he found the light, amiable and elegant style necessary for this type of work. Without making any concessions to his personality, this composer of so many gracious and alluring works has remembered the valuable example that Gabriel Fauré left for all musicians who attack the demanding chamber music genre: defend the rights of pure "melodiousness" while refining to the extreme its harmonic atmosphere In this Sonatina there is no melodic element that is abstract, scholastic or redundant. It is a gracious and sunny work that is not afraid of being charming, but whose harmonic fabric is astonishingly rich. What unprecedented luxury in the unexpected modulations, exceptional resolutions, avoided cadences, erudite tonal or modal ambiguity, subtle twists and turns, agile fe.
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