Sonata for Violin and Piano (2000)

Sonata for Violin and Piano

This Sonata for Violin and Piano is programmatic in a very general sense, following a journey (in four movements) into space and back to Earth. It does not attempt to portray any one particular story. The outer movements depict the intensity of travelling through the Earth’s atmosphere. Astronaut Michael Collins comments: “It’s human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand. Exploration is not a choice, really, it’s an imperative.” The inner movements represent an emotional idea of being alone in space. In the words of Cosmonaut, Aleksei

Leonov: “What struck me most was the silence. It was a great silence, unlike any I have encountered on Earth, so vast and deep that I began to hear my own body: my heart beating…” The work was written especially for Marianne Rothschild and the premiere performance was given by her and Kenji Fujimura at the Australian National Academy of Music on 21 November, 2000.

Stuart Greenbaum