If the sound of solo violin is too dry, or just a single line of melody would not appease the listener, then an accompaniment of any other instrument would make a violin sonata. Since the Baroque period, JS Bach wrote many violin sonatas for violin and harpsichord. He brought perfection to the balance of both instruments while maintaining the equal roles of both voices in the sonata. As we enter the Classical Period, W.A. Mozart composed many violin sonatas, but his late sonatas for violin and piano reaches artistic maturity in the sense that both instruments are literally inseparable. Then the early Beethoven ushered the compositional form into a more expressive range, casting his emotions into his violin sonatas -- from the lively
Spring sonata to his exciting
Kreutzer sonata. When the Classical Period ended, the Romantic composers wrote a series of violin sonatas that actually boast some of the most intimate emotions never brought about by their predecessors.
Cesar Franck (1822-1890) was one of them. Though he was born in Liege, Belgium in 1822, Franck was French in adoption. Being a child prodigy, his father, a banker, recognized his talent very early. Since then he was forced to perform in concerts when he was just a child. This was exhausting for him. The entire family moved to Paris when he was 13 years old, so that he could gain his fame there and also get the most prestigious music education. He studied at Liege from 1830-1835, and then in Paris from 1837-1842. Later, he took up a job as an organist, though in this era compositions for the organ were declining in popularity compared to the piano. Franck became a successful professor of organ at the Paris Conservatoire. His students included those French composers-to-be, like D'Indy, Duparc, and Chausson.
Franck wrote many pieces, but of all those, the Symphony in D minor and Violin Sonata in A prove to be his most famous. Other distinguished works, like his Piano Quintet, his Prelude, and String Quartet, made him an immortal amongst the French musicians. Although he had been a prolific composer, and produced many other memorable pieces, he never enjoyed the success as a composer. In fact, he is regarded more affectionately now than he was ever been when he was alive. He died due to an omnibus accident a year after the premier of his symphony.
Here, let us enjoy the greatest romantic violin sonata, written by Franck. The violin sonata is one of his late compositions, where he showed his insight of musical beauty and form to the fullest. In the sonata, he applied the 'cyclical' form of composition, ie having the same motif being subjected to different manipulations in all the four movements of the violin sonata. The outcome of this is making the entire piece a more 'central' piece, and not scattered with different ideas, but the last motif that binds the piece strongly, generating a feeling of 'completeness' of the entire composition.
