7. Echoes of Romanticism in Violin and Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 45 by Marcel Mihalovici - Analytical Landmarks for an Upscale Interpretation

The evolution of the genre of violin and piano sonata in the Romanian composition creation in the first half of the 20th century, marked by the tendency towards getting close to the European musical phenomenon by assimilating stylistic influences of Romanticism, especially, of Enescian Romanticism, distinctly manifesting in Violin and Piano Sonata no. 2, op. 45, by Marcel Mihalovici, one of the most renowned Romanian composers settled in Paris, appreciated by the famous contemporaries, such as M.Ravel, V.d’Indy, F. Poulenc etc. Sonata (1941), preceded by a motto in the sonnet of Romantic poet Gérard de Nerval Myrtho: „Je sais pourquoi lá bas lé volcan s’est rouvert…”, impresses through the high emotional tension, metaphorically expressed by the image of the “woken” volcano, figurative suggestiveness of the musical language, architectonic innovativeness, spectacular capitalization of the violin technique in the formula of a violin-piano choir.

Bowing Styles, Vibrato and Portamento in Nineteenth-Century Violin Playing

There are many aspects of nineteenth-century violin playing that have received little attention from scholars. The subject is a vast and complicated one, far beyond the scope of a short article to treat adequately, but there are a number of important areas in which problems have not even been recognized, let alone investigated. For instance, the most substantial recent work on this subject, Robin Stowell's Violin Technique and Performance Practice in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries (Cambridge, 1985), provides a useful digest of what the major violin methods of the period say, but because it is mainly confined to these sources, ignoring for the most part journalism and other contemporary accounts, and because it has a rather artificial terminal date of 1840, it fails to illuminate major underlying patterns of continuity and change in nineteenth-century violin playing. It may be valuable, therefore, to put forward a few ideas and suggest a few fruitful lines of enquiry which have until now remained largely unconsidered.

String Sonatas from Opus 1 and Opus 8

These twenty-two works afford a fascinating overview of the beginnings and early development of the baroque solo and trio sonata idioms. Moreover, they document the ever-widening exploration of violin technique at a time when that instrument was first being used in a soloistic setting.

An Instrumental Problem in ‘Pulcinella’

Stravinsky knew little about violin technique. It happens in the best circles. Schumann, on the evidence of his highly substantial string quartets, knew as much about string playing as I know about the cimbalom. Brahms and Tchaikovsky wrote great violin concertos against the violin. And Mahler's auditioning of violinists was a joke: ‘He attached the greatest significance to the steadiest possible bowing in sustained notes’, Carl Flesch recounts,and therefore considered the beginning of the third act of Siegfried [Flesch means the beginning of Act III, Scene 3] a touchstone for the bowing technique of an orchestral violinist … He first asked me to play a Mozart Adagio, and then set the Siegfried passage in front of me. As my bow glided over the strings with the phlegmatic calm of a world-weary philosopher, he seemed greatly pleased, wanted to nail me down to the post of leader at once, and accompanied me himself to the administration building …