Elgar: Mot d'amour - Works for Violin and Piano (SACD)

After devoting themselves to Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Schönberg and Hindemith, Ulf Wallin and Roland Pöntinen now turn their attention to the late romantic English composer Edward Elgar. "Mot d'amour", whose title comes from one of his early compositions for violin, presents a substantial part of Elgar's oeuvre for violin and piano, which spans his entire career. Elgar is best known for his symphonic and choral works, but he also composed chamber music, albeit only a few works, but nevertheless of a high standard. The Violin Sonata, a mature composition written at the same time as his two other major chamber works, is regarded by Elgar connoisseurs as one of his masterpieces. Elgar's own sonatas, inspired by Brahms' sonatas, were composed in the peaceful surroundings of his rented cottage in the country and are works of great expressiveness and emotional impact, with every superfluous note eliminated from the overall picture. As for the other pieces performed here, they show a lighter side of the composer, sometimes playful, sometimes melancholic. These works, which are unashamedly in the genre of salon music, testify to Elgar's versatility as well as his melodic gifts and his ability to transform a seemingly light genre into a vehicle for secret emotions, often charming but always free of sentimentality.