Göteborgs Konserthus Grimaud up close

Ravel's compelling, unsettling Violin Sonata in G major was written between 1923 and 1927. It was his second sonata for violin and piano, and his final chamber work. Composed in the aftermath of the First World War, and also of his mother's death in 1917, it is tempting to link the devastation of these two events with the sonata's deliberate avoidance of the lush Romanticism that had characterized his earlier chamber works. Despite its apparent austerity, however, the sonata possesses its own particular beauty. The ethereal first movement, with its ceaseless ostinato patterns and airy textures, manages to be both bare and deeply expressive, containing some passages of extraordinary lyricism. Although grounded in G major, the movement flirts with whole tones, bitonalism and modality; new themes flit in and out restlessly, playing fast and loose with conventional sonata form. The second movement, entitled Blues, is (as one might expect) infused with the rhythms and harmonies of blues. The violin intersperses pizzicato chords with long, sinuous melodies and playful glissandi above dotted rhythms in the piano part. The movement was prescient: a year after the sonata's completion Ravel embarked upon a hugely successful American tour. The finale, a rapid perpetuum mobile movement, begins with a few halting chords before the violin disappears into a virtuosic whirlwind of semiquavers. The restless interplay between the dizzying violin part and the sharp, staccato accompaniment draws the work to a climatic conclusion.

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