Gramophone Magazine
February 2024
Editor's Choice
Elena Urioste (violin), Tom Poster (piano)
Bonis: Violin Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 112
Fauré: Violin Sonata No. 2 in E minor, Op. 108
Hahn, R: Sonata in C major for violin & piano
Boulanger, L: Nocturne
Elena Urioste and Tom Poster return for their second recital on Chandos, focussing on French repertoire. The performers write: ‘The three sonatas on this album were all published during the decade 1916 – 26, a musical period to which we often find ourselves drawn, when the world – and the artistic landscape – was changing beyond recognition. Fauré lamented to his wife that his Second Sonata, composed under the shadow of the First World War, had never achieved anything like the popularity of his First; having fallen under the Second Sonata’s spell, we wanted to help to right this continuing imbalance. Mel Bonis, whose life story reads like the plot of a Hollywood film, wrote more than 300 pieces, and all those we have explored so far have been wonderful (she is our hot tip for the next composer due a major renaissance). Her only violin sonata is a rhapsodic work with a Greek folk melody at its heart, which we were enraptured by the moment we encountered it. Reynaldo Hahn is generally better known to singers than to instrumentalists, though his chamber music is as exquisite as his songs. His Violin Sonata was the last work on this album to be composed, but where Fauré in his Sonata looks forward to modernist developments, Hahn (with the exception of his short middle movement, inspired by a fast car ride!) looks back nostalgically to a gentler time. The earliest of the works here, and possibly the most often heard these days, is the Nocturne by Lili Boulanger, an exquisite miniature from a composer whose life ended far too soon.’
"Urioste’s beautiful playing and her enviable gift for spinning a long melody seamlessly, coupled with Poster’s keyboard dexterity – he plays a Steinway D Concert Grand – are both well served by the Chandos engineers." - Gramophone Magazine, February 2024
