English Violin Sonatas

Cala United 88031 [1995] / Re-issued 2007 – Portrait PCL2105 / Re-issued 2011 – Regis RRC1376

Thomas Dunhill: Sonata No. 2 (1917)
Granville Bantock: Sonata No. 3 (1940)
Charles Villiers Stanford: Sonata No. 1 (1880)

Recommended by Gramophone Good CD Guide

‘The three Violin Sonatas on offer are worth anyone’s money…Stanford’s is relatively youthful, vivacious and optimistic, with many a delightful detail. Bantock’s is a nostalgic, delicious work of great maturity and supreme lyricism. Dunhill’s was writen at the end of the Great War and is a compelling middle-period piece, expressive, poignant, ambiguous…Stanzeleit and Fenyő are fine chamber musicians, and their performances here are praiseworthy indeed – proficient, communicative and persuasive.’
(MusicWeb International, January 2012)

‘This anthology of extremely finely played English violin sonatas drawing on works across six decades…The Third Sonata [Bantock] is a bejewelled essay using themes typical of the tone poems…The Second Sonata by Thomas Dunhill is an ambitious and accomplished work in three capacious movement: serious, passionate, beautiful and big-hearted. It stands apart from the Stanford and Bantock, very much a grieving and poignant product of the Great War years. In this and several other senses it can be grouped with John Ireland’s contemporaneous Second Violin Sonata…For Dunhill this is an impassioned work in which stormy fervour meets lyrical release… Well worth acquiring and the only place to go for these works. The Dunhill and the Bantock are indispensable…Overall this is a generous and rewarding trio of duo-sonatas made outstanding by the Dunhill sonata.’
(MusicWeb International, November 2011)

‘The performance sounds ideal [Dunhill]. Stanzeleit judges her portamenti perfectly, so that they provide warmth without becoming soupy. Fenyő is a warm-toned partner…The Stanford and Dunhill, at least, deserve to be heard well beyond the confines of the usual British music enthusiasts. With such fine playing, do not hesitate if you like late romantic violin sonatas wherever they come from.’
(MusicWeb International, October 2011)

‘…Susanne Stanzeleit’s reflective and tender playing communicates heart-breaking undertones.’ [Dunhill]
(MusicWeb International, November 2007)

‘This [Dunhill] is a work of serious ambition and delivery…It is a significant work – passionate, lyrical, elegiac and exuberant.’
(MusicWeb International, May 2001)

‘…affectionate performances by Susanne Stanzeleit and Gusztáv Fenyő.’
(Daily Classical Music, January 2012)

‘Suzanne Stanzeleit Gusztáv Fenyő give characterful and committed performances.’
(BBC Music Magazine)

‘Susanne Stanzeleit is a marvellously eloquent purveyor of all this material…’
(Gramophone)

Available direct from Music-Makers @ £5 (including postage & packing).