Harriet Mackenzie and Danny Driver

French Treats

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Harriet Mackenzie violin  Danny Driver piano

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JS Bach: Sonata in E major BWV1016

Lili Boulanger: D'un matin de printemps

Claude Debussy: Sonata in G minor

César Franck: Sonata in A major

This otherwise wholly French programme begins with one of the six sonatas Bach composed around 1720 while working for Prince Leopold in Cöthen. It’s a truly equal partnership, with constant swapping of material between the instruments. The two slower movements are especially beautiful, as the players weave sensuous spells round each other.

D’un matin de printemps (On a Spring morning) was Lili Boulanger’s last composition before her tragically early death in 1918. It’s an upbeat piece, though not without reflective moments, vividly capturing the changing and mercurial moods of the season.

“An example of what a sick man may produce in time of war” was how Debussy described his Sonata in G minor ― the last work he completed before his death, like Boulanger’s, in 1918. But it would be wrong to expect darkness and despair. There are tinges of nostalgia and an autumnal feel, but the work remains positive and even ends triumphantly. It spans a range of emotions in a short time, with rhythmic vitality and gorgeous harmonies.

Another late work, Franck’s Sonata for violin and piano was written as a wedding present for his fellow musician Eugène Ysaÿe in 1886. It was Ysaÿe’s subsequent championing of the work that cemented Franck’s reputation as a composer. The French musical establishment had hitherto been resistant to thinking of him as anything other than an organist (albeit a very distinguished one). The Sonata deserves its popularity. It’s richly lyrical throughout and full of strong emotion – the recurrent appearance of its beautiful and haunting opening motif firmly anchors the four movements and brings it to its majestic and irresistible conclusion.