Word: sonata
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Another feature of the concert was the performance of two Baroque flute sonatas with the accompaniment of a harpsichord, played nicely by Sy Hayden. Flautist Eric Herz overcame some nervousness at the beginning of a sonata by Loeillet and went on to play Bach's Sonata in G minor with assurance. The work is a typical Italian trio-sonata structure enriched by Bach's genius...
...them have a solid enough appeal. String Quartet No. 1, by Russian-born Alexei Haieff (played by the Juilliard Quartet), is a gentle composition that makes the most of the ensemble's wispy, wistful potentialities. The piece is old-fashioned without embarrassment, sometimes uses modern techniques without effort. Sonata for Piano and Percussion is by one of the world's few women composers, Australia-born Peggy Glanville-Hicks, 42. A vigorous piece, it craftily blends the disparate instruments, but drives home its points, even in the lyrical slow movement, almost too insistently...
...Bartok: Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano (Rafael Druian, John Simms; Mercury). Written at Bartok's most dissonant period, in 1922, this rarely heard sonata bursts with haunting effects. It contains whole sections where adjacent notes sound sweet as a simple triad, others where the same kind of crowded combinations become strident and even brutal, and yet the whole mysterious piece works out as logically as a Haydn minuet. It is expertly played by the concertmaster of the Minneapolis Symphony and Pianist Simms...
...Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp (Julius Baker, Lillian Fuchs, Laura Newell; Decca). This is one of the sonatas for various instruments that occupied Debussy in 1915, just before he learned that he was dying of cancer. It is a beauty. Its outlines are firmer than usual, but the darkling tones of the viola, the haunting, woody quality of the low flute, and the romantic harp are as ecstatic as ever. Performance: hard to beat...
...appearances. The second and third prizewinners would do almost as well, and even the next nine would reap fair-sized consolation prizes. As the finger-wringing elimination concerts wore on, contestants fell by the wayside under the demands of such compositions as a Vieuxtemps concerto, an Ysaÿe sonata, and a collection of "transcendentally difficult works...