The "
closing statements" referred to in the title of this album are late works, in a couple of cases, the last works written by their respective composers. Violinist
Sophie Rosa and pianist
Ian Buckle are not the first to become fascinated by such musical swan songs, but the concept is of questionable value, for generally, composers weren't planning on dying as they wrote their last works. The exception, perhaps, is
Schumann, who was hearing strange tones in his head and may well have had premonitions of encroaching madness. His
Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor, WoO 27 (here identified as
WoO 2 according to a different numbering), has a first movement with a strangely insistent figure that dissolves only after considerable time into something more lyrical.
Rosa and
Buckle do well with this difficult work, which even the dedicatee,
Joseph Joachim, complained about. The
Schumann Phantasie in C major, Op. 131, is slightly earlier and makes an interesting comparison. The
Phantasy for violin and piano, Op. 47, of
Schoenberg, was also a last work. Although written according to the 12-tone method, the piece has a balanced Classical feel, and
Rosa and
Buckle suggest that composers late in life turned to music of earlier eras for inspiration. That seems to be the explanation for including the
"Post Scriptum" Sonata for violin and piano of
Valentin Silvestrov, which is not a particularly late work at all (it was written in 1991, and
Silvestrov is still going strong). The work is a good example of
Silvestrov's eclectic style, mixing several musical languages of the past. Although one might question the organization of the program here, the performances in themselves are strong, with
Rosa having a rich yet clear Romantic tone. The album is highly listenable and is probably good for starting a few discussions about late-life creativity. ~ James Manheim
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