IV Solnechnaya (Sunlight) Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor (2005) by Ivan Sokolov

Karen Bentley Pollick and Ivan Sokolov perform the final movement of Sokolov's Solnechnaya Sonata at Lord of the Mountain Lutheran Church in Dillon, Colorado on November 6, 2011.

IV Allegro

Solnechnaya Sonata for Violin and Piano was written in August 2005. The first movement, Allegro moderato is a sonata form in E minor and is filled with a lyric-epic atmosphere and impressions from the beauty of Russian nature. Working on it, I was listening to Russian music and especially Alexander Glazunov's Karelian Legend (op. 99, 1916). The second movement Andante is in a pastoral, contemplative mood -- with a kinship to the symphonic music by Vassily Kalinnikov, suggestive of memories of respite in the open air. In the middle section there appears an image of a wide river, smoothly bearing its waters. In the recapitulation, you can hear bird singing. This bird's singing comes closer to us in the third movement, Scherzo, and we look at it as if through an "ear microscope." The finale, Allegro vivace, and the dramaturgical center of the Sonata, is in rondo form. It has only one theme, but some images from the previous movements are reflected and reach their conclusions in this finale. After a lyrical development, the music gradually becomes brighter and ends with a coda in E Major, which is reminiscent of a burst of sunlight. The entire piece is named for this coda -- the Solnechnaya (Sunlight) Sonata.
I am grateful to the wonderful violinist Karen Bentley Pollick for her request to write this music and for agreeing to perform it.

www.obst-music.com/artists/sokolov.htm
www.kbentley.com

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• Ivan Sokolov
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• Finale