Baldini/Rossi - Heitor Villa-Lobos: Complete Violin Sonatas

Heitor Villa-Lobos�s three violin sonatas date from a key period in his career: the moment at which he matured as a composer, established his personal idiom and achieved his first professional triumphs. Each sonata shares some influence from French late Romanticism or Impressionism, as well as revealing Villa-Lobos�s skill as a string player. The First Violin Sonata�s subtitle of D�sesp�rance (�Despair�) suits its melancholy lyricism, while the �infinite abundance of musical ideas� in the Second Violin Sonata is characterised by a wide range of emotions. The sophisticated Third Violin Sonata is steeped in the influence of Debussy, but also anticipates Villa-Lobos�s new directions in the 1920s.