Eduard Franck - Violin Sonatas (Christiane Edinger; James Tocco)

Information

Composer: Eduard Franck

CD1:

• (01) Violin Sonata in C minor, Op. 19
• (04) Violin Sonata in A major, Op. 23

CD2:

• (01) Violin Sonata in E flat major, Op. 60
• (05) Violin Sonata in D major, Op. posth.

Christiane Edinger, violin

James Tocco, piano

Date: 2007

Label: Audite

https://audite.de/en/product/2SACD/91553-e_franck_the_sonatas_for_violin_and_piano.html

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Review

This is Eduard Franck (1817-93) of Breslau, not Cesar Franck of Liège, and there are four violin sonatas here. Sonata 1, composed in 1853, is not a worthwhile work. Sonata 2 of 1859 shows considerable improvement and is engaging. Sonata 3 (no date) is even better, and the posthumous sonata without opus from 1861 is the best of the bunch.

It's good to see that Franck improved. He chose good models too; I of the 1861 sonata owe a debt to I of Beethoven's Violin Sonata 10. In fact, Franck's violin sonatas occupy a special niche, according to the booklet notes. The only major composer in the mid-19th Century to compose violin sonatas was Schumann. While I don't think these works are quite as good as Schumann's first two violin sonatas, they are good nonetheless and have a true romantic spirit combined with classical form.

The performances are adequate. Christiane Edinger has a wobbly vibrato that sometimes knocks the notes out of tune and sounds a bit frumpy. She is at her best in the slow movement of the 1861 sonata, which is lovely. James Tocco is a musical, equal partner and more of a pleasure to listen to. Good sound.

-- Magil, American Record Guide

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Eduard Franck (5 October 1817 – 1 December 1893) was a German composer, pianist and music pedagogue. He studied with Felix Mendelssohn as a private student in Düsseldorf and Leipzig. As a talented pianist, he embarked upon a dual career as a concert artist and teacher for more than four decades during the course of which he held many positions. Although highly regarded as both a teacher and performer, Franck, as a composer, never achieved the public recognition of his better known contemporaries such as Mendelssohn, Schumann or Liszt. His chamber music is generally considered amongst his finest compositions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Franck

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Christiane Edinger (born 20 March 1945 in Potsdam) is a German violinist. She studied at the Berlin University of the Arts with Vittorio Brero (1960-64), with Joseph Fuchs at the Juilliard School (1965-67), and in 1963/64, she also attended courses given by Nathan Milstein in Gstaad. Edinger made her debut as a concert violinist at the Berliner Festspiele in 1962, then her Carnegie Hall debut in 1966. This was followed by concert tours to various European countries, the USA, the Soviet Union, South America, India, Africa, China and Japan. From 1994 until her retirement, Edinger was professor at the Lübeck Academy of Music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiane_Edinger

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James Tocco (born 1943 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American concert pianist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tocco

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