After thirty years of country life at The White Gates, Dorking, Vaughan Williams moved to Hanover Terrace in London in 1953, following the death of his first wife Adeline. Packing for the move no doubt brought to light many old, withdrawn manuscripts, including a piano quintet (scored for the same forces as Schubert's "Trout" Quintet) from 1903. Music from that unpublished work found its way into the energetic Violin Sonata in A Minor, which Vaughan Williams wrote for Frederick Grinke, who had given memorable performances of The Lark Ascending. This late work—in its three expansive movements combining youthful vigor and mature serenity—was first played at a BBC studio broadcast on the composer's eighty-second birthday, October 12, 1954.

A Fantasia marked Allegro giusto opens the work, its first dance-like theme declared by the piano in quick 9/8 time, while the violin chimes in with a thoughtful version in slow 3/4. Although there is a second, somewhat darker theme in D minor, the opening tune predominates through a contrapuntal working-out. A lento coda brings this emotionally ambiguous movement to a close. The second movement, a scherzo marked Allegro furioso, is the most technically adept music in the score, juggling three themes with dexterity, and featuring some fine writing for the piano, an instrument that Vaughan Williams often claimed to have little sympathy for.

The last movement is the longest of the three, a set of variations on a theme from the 1903 quintet. Here it's treated six times, sometimes with tricks of the trade like canon and inversion, sometimes as the springboard for more dramatic excursions, as in the emphatic third variation, the mysterious, and the majestic sixth. A brief cadenza leads to a serene conclusion that recalls, meditatively, the opening theme.

© Mark Satola, Rovi