Debussy had intended to write a cycle comprising six sonatas. However, as he was seriously ill, he was forced to conclude it with the third one. Whereas the Sonata for Cello and Piano and the one for Flute, Viola and Harp were quickly written in 1915, an unusually fruitful compositional year, the violin sonata posed difficulties for the composer in the following year. He struggled with the finale in particular, and was only able to send the work to the publisher Durand in April 1917. Its difficult genesis is soon forgotten when one listens to the resulting work: it displays perfect classicism and is full of life, as the composer himself remarked.
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Preface
At the end of 1915 when Claude Debussy was planning his series of “six sonatas for various instruments” he originally intended the third sonata to be for violin, English horn and piano. Soon, however, the English horn fell by the wayside, for the composer had in mind that the work would be premièred by Arthur Hartmann, an American violinist of Hungarian extraction. … more
Critical Commentary
About the composer
Claude Debussy
Most important French composer around 1900, whose music, primarily characterized by its sound, exhibits profound innovations. His oeuvre bears a close relationship to Symbolism.
| 1862 | Born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on August 22. |
| 1872–84 | Studies at the Conservatoire de Paris. During this time, he travels with the family of Nadezhda von Meck to Switzerland, Italy, Vienna, and Russia, where he becomes acquainted with Russian and Gypsy music. |
| 1884 | Wins the Prix de Rome with his cantata “L’Enfant prodigue.” Thereafter resides in Rome until 1887. |
| 1887–89 | Songs, “Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire.” |
| 1888/89 | Visit to the Bayreuth Festival; criticism of Wagner. |
| 1889 | Exposition universelle (World Exposition) in Paris, where he learns about East Asian music, which influences his style. |
| 1890 | Connection to Mallarmé and his circle. |
| 1891/1903 | Series of songs, “Fêtes galantes,” after Verlaine. |
| 1891–94 | Orchestral work “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune” (“Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”) with arabesque-like melodies. |
| 1897–99 | Nocturnes for orchestra and women’s voices. |
| 1901 | Beginning of his activity as a music critic. |
| 1902 | Performance of the opera “Pelléas et Mélisande” after the Symbolist drama by Maeterlinck, which despite criticism spells his breakthrough. |
| 1903–05 | Orchestral work “La Mer” uses symphonic principles and “Impressionist” tonal language. |
| 1905–07 | Books one and two of “Images” for piano. |
| 1906–08 | “Children’s Corner,” children’s pieces for piano. |
| 1909–10/11–1913 | Books one and two of the “Préludes” for piano; the programmatic titles of these character pieces, some of which are quite esoteric, are listed at the end of each one. |
| 1913 | Songs “Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé.” |
| 1915–17 | Chamber music sonatas, drawing from the French tradition of the eighteenth century. |
| 1918 | Death in Paris on March 25. |
About the authors
Ernst-Günter Heinemann (Editor)
Dr. Ernst-Günter Heinemann, born in 1945 in Bad Marienberg (Westerwald), completed his schooling in Gießen and read musicology, philosophy and German in Marburg and Frankfurt/Main and also for some time Protestant church music. He did his doctorate on “Franz Liszts geistliche Musik. Zum Konflikt von Kunst und Engagement”.
From 1978–2010 Heinemann worked as an editor at G. Henle Publishers (in 1978 in Duisburg, from 1979 onwards in Munich). He edited a great many Urtext editions for the publishing house, including “Das Wohltemperierte Klavier”, Volume 1 by Bach and all of Debussy’s piano works. In addition, he wrote essays on Debussy, Grieg, Liszt, Mendelssohn and questions concerning general editing, as well as giving seminars on editorial practice for musicology students in Munich.
Klaus Schilde (Fingering)
Prof. Klaus Schilde, born in 1926, spent his childhood in Dresden. There he was greatly influenced by Walter Engel, who taught him the piano (Kodaly method), composition and violin. From 1946–1948 he studied at the music conservatory in Leipzig with Hugo Steurer. After moving to the west in 1952 he studied with Walter Gieseking and Edwin Fischer, as well as with Marguerite Long, Lucette Descaves and Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
Schilde won numerous prizes. From 1947 onwards he gave concerts as a soloist and chamber musician on almost every single continent with renowned orchestras. He taught at the music conservatories in East Berlin Detmold, West Berlin, Munich, Tokyo (Geidai) and Weimar. From 1988–1991 he was President of the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, where he also taught for decades as a professor. There are numerous radio and television broadcasts with Klaus Schilde as well as CD recordings. Schilde has contributed fingerings to almost 100 Henle Urtext editions.
Prof. Klaus Schilde passed away on December 10, 2020.
Kurt Guntner (Fingering and bowing for Violin)
Prof. Kurt Guntner was born in Munich on Mozart’s 183rd birthday. He studied the violin with Ludwig Ackermann, Max Rostal and Henryk Szeryng. At the age of 18, he made his solo debut in the Kongreßsaal at the German Museum in Munich, performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. At the age of 22 he was appointed first concertmaster with the Bavarian State Orchestra. After 10 eventful years at the Bavarian State Opera with conductors such as Ferenc Fricsay, Joseph Keilberth and Hans Knappertsbusch, Rudolf Kempe invited him to become the first concertmaster with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, giving him the opportunity to perform the violin solo in many of the great violin concertos.
Of particular appeal were the BR’s invitations to perform and record great violin concertos that were seldom played, including those by Casella, Schillings, Szymanowsky. Kurt Eichhorn initiated this series– Jan Koetsier, Marek Janowski and others conducted other concertos. Kurt Guntner was also first concertmaster with the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra for many years, and played with the Munich Bach Orchestra under Karl Richter, in the Association of Soloists in The Bach Week in Ansbach and with the Münchner Bachsolisten. In 1972 he founded the internationally acclaimed ODEON-TRIO, together with the cellist Angelica May and the pianist Leonard Hokanson, touring all over the world with them for 25 years. In 1976 Guntner was called to the tenured chair of violin at Munich’s Hochschule für Musik und Theater, teaching students from around the world for 28 years.
He made numerous recordings for radio, television, record and CD. Karl Schumann described Guntner’s broad musical personality thus: “Kurt Guntner is a practical orchestral musician, soloist, chamber musician and educator in one person”.
In 1997 Kurt Guntner was awarded the order of merit (first class) of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Kurt Guntner died on 9 January 2015 in Munich.
He was closely associated with G. Henle Publishers for several decades. Since the end of the 1980s he had produced numerous Urtext editions of works for violin for the publishing house, sharing pedagogically polished bowings and fingerings for different works including violin concertos by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Bruch and Tchaikovsky, as well as numerous other editions.