GUNNAR DE FRUMERIE (1908-1987): Piano Sonatas, Op. 64 & Op. 65, Sonatinas, Op. 43, Nos, 1 & 2.
Catalogue Number: 05R057
Label: db Productions
Reference: dBCD171
Format: CD
Price: $16.98
Description: Collectors who remember the rich neo-Romanticism of this composer’s piano and violin concertos on a 2001 Caprice release will know what to expect from these two short sonatas from 1968 (performed by the same pianist as on the Caprice CD): high energy and brief glimpses of many romantic composer’s styles - but so brief you realize that they are all assimilated into de Frumerie’s personal tonal style. Parts of the ten-minute first sonata are taken from a 1930 work but both sonatas connect with the expressive style of the composer’s compositions of the 1930s and 40s. In keeping with the genre of the Sonatina the two examples here (from 1950 when many Swedish composers were making use of this form) have motoric, sometimes fugal outer movements with a virtuoso character in the finales and a melodic simplicity in the slow central movements. Mats Widlund (piano).