Five Sonatas

SKU: HH.HH364-FSP

ISBN 9790708092940.

Partly on account of their instrumentation, the Op. 18 sonatas are closely modelled on Corelli's Opp. 1aEUR4, both in terms of style and violin technique. Each consists of four or five movements, at least one being a dance; most of the slow movements feature the familiar Corellian walking bass, while one of the fast movements in each sonata is fugal or based on imitative entries. In spite of their adherence to Italian models, however, the sonatas do display certain French elements, along with characteristics of Boismortier's individual style. The harmonic language is particularly rich, with a marked predilection for chords of the seventh, and two of the sonatas feature the composer's own version of a (loosely constructed) double fugue.

SKU: HH.HH293-FSP

ISBN 9790708092407.

Giovanni Vitali's set of twelve sonatas Op. 5 for various combinations of strings and continuo, published in 1669, was the Bolognese composer's most ambitious collection of chamber music to date. He most likely wrote it as an application piece for membership of the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica, for each sonata has a dedicatory subtitle bearing the name of one of the city's noblemen. This first volume of Martin Perkins's scholarly performing edition contains five works – the sonatas for two violins and organ continuo.

SKU: HH.HH525-FSP

ISBN 9790708185369.

The Six Trio Sonatas of the Italian composer and violinist Michele Mascitti (1663/4–1760), published alongside eight violin sonatas in his Op. 4, are four- or five-movement works that felicitously mix the ‘church’ and ‘chamber’ styles in various configurations. This is the most ‘social’ music imaginable and will give great enjoyment in both a recreational and a concert setting.

SKU: ST.MB88

ISBN 9790220221996.

Hitherto unpublished, the four trio sonatas and two fivepart sonatas by William Croft, which came to light in 1977, are among the most interesting and rewarding of English chamber works to have been written in the period between the trio sonatas of Purcell and those of Boyce and Arne. Possibly first heard at the concerts of the musical smallcoals man, Thomas Britton, they are complemented by six sonatas for two solo recorders, and three violin sonatas that are amongst the earliest printed works in this genre by an English composer.

SKU: HH.HH476-FSP

ISBN 9790708146872.

Antoine Favre (c.1670–c.1739), was a composer of rare ability whose few surviving collections, all published during the 1730s, have hitherto remained unknown not only to performers but also to the majority of scholars. His second book of sonatas for violin and basso continuo (the first is lost) contains six substantial five-movement works suited equally to concert performance and domestic enjoyment. Players will relish their variety of expression, embracing both the Italian and French styles, and formal sophistication, as well as their harmonic resourcefulness, contrapuntal ingenuity and idiomatic instrumental writing.

SKU: HH.HH478-FSP

ISBN 9790708146896.

Antoine Favre (c.1670–c.1739), was a composer of rare ability whose few surviving collections, all published during the 1730s, have hitherto remained unknown not only to performers but also to the majority of scholars. His second book of sonatas for violin and basso continuo (the first is lost) contains six substantial five-movement works suited equally to concert performance and domestic enjoyment. Players will relish their variety of expression, embracing both the Italian and French styles, and formal sophistication, as well as their harmonic resourcefulness, contrapuntal ingenuity and idiomatic instrumental writing.

SKU: HL.49019054

ISBN 9790001147828.

On 11 August 2011 it is fifty years since the death of the composer Johanna Senfter from Oppenheim who actually was a trained violinist for she had studied with renowned violinists at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. No wonder that she dealt with the solo violin repertoire her whole life long. Concert works with orchestral accompaniment as well as chamber music works were the results of her compositional endeavours, and she attended to both the large and the small form. Apart from sonatas deeply rooted in the Romantic tradition, Johanna Senfter also wrote '5 Stucke' Op. 100 for violin with piano accompaniment. They are five miniatures which combine to form a kind of sonatina, while nevertheless being quite equal to its big sister, the sonata, as regards playing and compositional technique. A musically demanding, yet rewarding work by the Reger pupil.