Composer: Günter Raphael
Performer: Pauline Reguig, Emilio Peroni, Darius Kaunas
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0122
Release: 2010
Size: 288 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Violin Sonatina in B Minor, Op. 52
01. I. Massig
02. II. Breit und gesangvoll
03. III. Tanzerisch belebt, dabei etwas schwerfallig und derb
Violin Sonata in E Major, Op. 46, No. 2
04. I. Sehr langsam
05. II. Scherzo: Ganze takte
06. III. Gemessen
Duo Sonata in G Minor, Op. 47, No. 1
07. I. Mit lebhafter energie
08. II. Langsam gehend (in fliessender bewegung)
09. III. Nicht zu lebhaft, ein wenig gemachlich
Violin Sonata in A Minor, Op. 46, No. 1
10. I. In Form einer freien Fantasie
11. II. Ruhig und gesangvoll
12. III. Ausserst schnell
Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Major, Op. 43
13. I. Vivace
14. II. Allegretto grazioso
15. III. Con fuoco
Günter Raphael (1903–60) was a composing prodigy whose First Symphony was premiered by Furtwängler at the age of only 23. His music was also championed by the Busch Quartet, and he became one of the youngest professors at the Leipzig Conservatoire.
In 1934 he was declared a ‘half-Jew’ by the Nazis and was forced from his teaching position in Leipzig, moving to Meiningen where his wife, a pianist, held a teaching position.
In 1937 he caught tuberculosis – which, paradoxically, was to be the saving of him: confined to hospital during the War years, he continued to compose while his doctors protected him from persecution. After the war he went back to teaching and ended as professor at the Cologne Musikhochschule, before finally succumbing to the disease which he had fought for so long.
Stylistically his music lies in the mainstream of German Romanticism as refracted through Hindemith. These violin works are strongly melodic and rhythmically vital; the two solo sonatas have echoes of Bach.