The Violin Sonatas of Emilie Mayer
... do try this chamber music disc; you will not be disappointed
The French composer Emilie Mayer (1812-83) has already appeared once on Classical Explorer via her Symphony No. 1 in C minor (1843), via a concert from the ever-impressive Insula Orchestra.
Now there is a chance to explore Mayer's chamber music here via her violin sonatas. The pianist is the excellent Sabine Weyer (who I have interviewed for International Piano before now); the violinist Emeline Pierre Larsen is new to me, but on this evidence I hope to encounter her again very soon. Her very impressive website is here; she is probably best known as a member of the Constanze Quartet.
We don't quite now how many violin sonatas Mayer wrote. there are six extant, but two (at least) are lost. Good to have three full ones here, then ....
The D-Major Sonata, heard first, combines lyricism and dynamism beautifully. Mayer has a pronounced melodic gift. The score needs two equally talented players (the piano part is no walk in the park).
One can hear in the flow of ideas how the composer Carl Loewe, with whom she studied, might describe he as a "diviner's talent". No missing the funeral march aspect of the Adagio, nor the sweet violin contrast later on in this movement. It is a beautifully constructed microcosm. Pacing is simply superb from Larsen and Weyer:
The Scherzo flickers nicely, full of contrasts. The performance is spot-on: this music equates micro-nuance, and it certainly gets it here:
The finale is delightful, the epitome of the gentle face of Romanticism. When the music does rise up, Larsen's low vibrato sensitivity does not quite is up to meet it.
The Sonata in E flat might predate that of the D-Major. One can hear Beethoven in the shadows in the first movement, for sure, and there is perhaps more of a Classicist orientation here:
Nothing so far prepares on for the depth of the Andante that follows. Larsen and Weyer find whispered profundities here. Mayer continues the surprises by following it with a rondo - that is not the finale!. Here's the Andante:
.. and here's that rondo (which is in fact a scherzo/rondo hybrid formally):
The finale is light on its feet, and impulsive. Larsen's technique is superlative, her tuning always pinpoint. Mayer's plateau of slower music is beautifully timed.
The third and final sonata on the disc is thinly one with an opus number: the F-Major, Op. 17 (it was published by Carl Paez in 1863: publisher; piece info). It is the shadow of Beethoven that once more is cast over the shadowy Andante opening to the first movement.
I don't find that movement to be quite the standard (in compositional terms) of the other first movements here. There are quite a lot of stock devices in play; the Adagio non troppo is a different matter, however, a properly searching movement. There are some simply lovely dialogue between violin and piano before the piano sings, accompanied by violin double-stopping in a what is a truly lovely moment.
The Scherzo is almost pastoral, and yet holds little horn fanfare gestures in the piano part. This is a great movement, arguably the best starting point if on is dipping into Mayer's chamber music:
There only appears to be one more release by Emeline Pierre Larsen, and of very different music: that of Peter Lieuwen on Naxos (I've put a steaming link below). But do try this chamber music disc; you will not be disappointed!
This lovely disc is available from Amazon here.
Mayer/cpo