 Saluons d'abord l'intelligence de ce programme qui regroupe 3 sonates du début du vingtième siècle. La première est une œuvre de jeunesse du compositeur polonais Karol Szymanowski, marquée par l'influence de Chopin et Scriabine. Un profond lyrisme se mêle à des thèmes âpres et véhéments qui culminent dans l'impressionnante course à l'abîme du finale, thème fébrile martelé au piano. Très courte, la sonate d'Hindemith est d'une fraîcheur étonnante pour un compositeur réputé austère. Après un début claironnant suit un thème ingénu plein de nostalgie, comme un souvenir de menuet. Le deuxième mouvement développe une mélodie fantomatique au violon, où passe une ombre de chant folklorique. S'estimant satisfait de l'équilibre obtenu, Hindemith ne souhaita pas rajouter d'autres mouvements. Nous découvrons ensuite la pierre de touche de ce disque avec la rare sonate de Respighi, ce compositeur italien que l'on cantonne sous l'étiquette de néoclassique et que l'on résume trop souvent à ses poèmes symphoniques « Fontaines de Rome », « Pins de Rome » et autres « Fêtes romaines ». C'est une œuvre très accessible d'un lyrisme flamboyant et passionné : écoutez le magnifique retour du piano dans sa succession d'accords arpégés, à partir de 4 minutes 15... Les 2 sœurs Lea et Esther Birringer, servies par une prise de son remarquable sont d'un engagement total et nous offrent un disque magnifique à marquer d'une pierre blanche. (Denis Jarrin) "Ever since Frédéric Chopin, Poland had not brought forth another composer of international stature. The late 1800‘s marked an all-time low in Polish national music history – a scene frozen in time, as if all contact was broken off with innovations in Western Europe. Thus, when the young Karol Szymanowski made his entrance with a new, unruly musical vocabulary, he met with little sympathy. Instead of compromising with the reactionary zeitgeist in his home country, Szymanowski decided to go abroad to enlarge his musical horizon. Berlin was then the capital of European classical music, and Szymanowski, with his enthusiasm for Wagner and Richard Strauss, could not resist its attraction. In Leipzig he was introduced to the counterpoint of Max Reger. He found further inspiration in the Second Viennese School, and in the Impressionist timbres of Debussy and Ravel. Musical cultures of the Mediterranean tantalized Szymanowski, even the exotic sonorities of the Near East, and Polish folklore was naturally a further source of inspiration. “He wanted to be the Polish Stravinsky”, a friend recalled. Just like Karol Szymanowski, Paul Hindemith was best acquainted with the violin’s full potential. Hindemith played the instrument so well that at the young age of nineteen he was already appointed concertmaster at Frankfurt Opera. Then he switched to viola and went on to pursue a successful career between the wars as a viola soloist and as a member of the Amar Quartet. In this period, Hindemith was still trying to find his voice as a composer and wrote a great number of highly original works for both instruments. Respighi had finished studying violin at the age of twenty in his home town of Bologna : he was thus well-acquainted with the violin, and went on composing regularly for the instrument throughout his life. Some of the most significant works in this vein were Respighi’s Concerto gregoriano for violin and orchestra, as well as the Violin Sonata in B minor (1917). This large-scale, traditionally oriented work in three movements exudes a lyrical, rhapsodic mood.
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