Franck scrawled the word "poison" across a copy of Wagner's opera Tristan. This was a burst of emotion born of not only frustration but also mingled fear and admiration for a work so brave in its harmonic vocabulary. The enthusiasm for Wagner was at its height at the time Franck composed his Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major. The sonata is fraught with influences that have their roots in Wagner's harmonic language, "poison" or not.
The second of three notable chamber works that appear near the end of a long list of creative effors, the Sonata was completed in 1886. It had been preceded by the Quintet for Piano and Strings (1879) and was followed a few years later by the String Quartet (1889).
Little is known surrounding the composition of the Sonata but rumors speak ofits relationship to Augusta Holmes, a pupil of Franck of celebrated beauty and charm, who inspired the Sonata. However, the dedication is to Eugene Ysaye, the well-known Belgian violinist of the late 19th century who gave the premiere performance of the Sonata in Brussels soon after he received the manuscript.
The premiere took place in the Brussels Museum. No artificial lighting was allowed in the building and, as the evening wore on, the players could hardly see their music. By the end of the first movement the concert was about to be cut short but the audience refused to leave. Ysaye struck his music stand with his bow and shouted, "Allons, allons!" The players then plunged into the last three movements to the amazement and enthusiastic response of the audience.
The Sonata is in four standard movements. The first movement, marked Allegretto, is based on two themes. The first is presented by the violin, the second by the piano. The htemes are short, and thus easy to develop. The harmonies are luh and reminiscent of his frustrated admiration of Wagner. It is well known that Franck encouraged his composition students to have an improvisatory quality and exhorted them to make their music modulate to different keys as much as possible.
The second movement is a turbulent Allegro. Its dramatic, intense quality is heightened by a rapid tempo. There is no sense of the traditional scherzo here, rather a menacing outpouring of romantic emotion. Franck quotes some of the material from the first movement with some slight modifications.
The third movement is marked Recitative-Fantasia and is completely free in its construction and formal play. It has a true improvisational quality to it. Again Franck alludes frequently to the themes of the opening movement, creating a cyclic feel to the Sonata. The concluding measures, Molto lento e mesto (very slowly and sadly), are unforgettable in their poignancy.
The last movement, Allegretto poco mosso, is a type of canon, a polyphonic device to which Franck was very partial. The result is a pleasing, yet unusual, finish to this remarkable sonata. Again, Franck alludes to the first movement's theme that by now is immediately recognizable. In its felicitous use of polyphony the last movement of the sonata ranks as Franck's most successful solution to creating a new and vibrant conclusion to the sonata structure.
-- Kendall Briggs