Seperating The Music From The Diagnosis

There is always a tendency to look for hints of his oncoming depressive illness when considering Schumann's late music. Wise heads try to ignore this and focus on the music itself and I intend to follow that course ! This is a superb disk of the three violin sonatas played by violinist Carolin Widmann and pianist Denes Varjon. The recording is wonderfully clear and perfectly balanced and the playing exquisite and finely judged. The violin sonata was a form that Schumann came to late, it being fair to say that he was more comfortable composing for the piano than for the violin. Although I am among those who love his earlier string quartets. The composition of the violin sonatas was prompted by the well documented friendship with the renowned violinist Joachim, although in the end they were first played by Clara and another violinist Wasielewski. I value all three sonatas but they do vary with the first being more traditional, following established patterns and the third being to some extent cobbled together ( it was originally written as a salon amusemnent with a first movement by Dietrich and the third by Brahms while Schumann supplied the other two and subsequently rewrote those of his colleagues ) This disk re-orders the sonatas to finish with the second which is the most profound and Schuman's masterpiece in the genre which stands alongside any by other composers.