For many decades Felix Mendelssohn was thought to have authored only one violin sonata: the Sonata for violin and piano in F minor, Op. 4. And, although two further sonatas for violin-piano duo came to light during the latter half of the twentieth century, neither of them has been able to steal the limelight from Opus 4 as his most popular work in the genre, even if some Mendelssohn-lovers feel that one of the other two, the 1838 F major Sonata, is more deserving of that distinction. Mendelssohn composed the Opus 4 sonata in 1825, when he was in his mid-teens. It is a solidly built three-movement piece with more than a hint of Beethovenian minor-mode storminess to it; yet the passion does not obscure Mendelssohn's clear eighteenth-century formal lines and genteel musical manners.

The first movement of the sonata begins with a slow, nine-measure quasi-recitative for the violin, unaccompanied. When the piano finds its way into the piece after an unsettled half cadence, the tempo suddenly shifts gears up to Allegro moderato, and there it remains for the rest of the movement. This opening movement is textbook sonata allegro stuff, with an anxious first subject and a dreamy second subject that unfolds over a long pedal point.

The middle movement is a lightly ornamented and substantial Poco Adagio in velveteen A flat major. The finale, on the other hand, hustles and bustles its way around an Allegro agitato, 6/8 time F minor; its final measures are ushered in by a quasi-cadenza for solo violin quite like the one that began the sonata, and it seems as though the movement will end with an explosion of fortissimo chords. But Mendelssohn, always elusive, throws a pianissimo curve ball instead.

© All Music Guide