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New Schubert Recording

Violinist Tasmin Little and pianist Piers Lane have performed and recorded together for many years. They continue their fruitful musical partnership with a new 2-CD release featuring the chamber works by Franz Schubert.

British-born Tasmin Little has been on the international stage for two decades and stays very busy. Beside this 2-CD Schubert set, her most recent releases for Chandos include a disc of British orchestral works including Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, Moeran’s Violin Concerto and pieces by Delius, Elgar and Holst with the BBC Philharmonic and Sir Andrew Davis, a British Violin Sonatas disc of works by Ferguson, Britten and Walton with Piers Lane, a French Violin Sonatas disc of sonatas by Lekeu, Ravel and Fauré with Martin Roscoe.

Australian-born pianist Piers Lane has an active solo career along with long-standing partnerships with Little, clarinetist Michael Collins and the Goldner String Quartet. He has created original programming for BBC Radio 3, including a popular series called “The Piano.”

Schubert wrote a great deal of chamber works because he was able to get them performed (Many of his orchestral works remained unplayed during his short lifetime). The 3 sonatas, Op. 137, or “sonatinas” as they were called when published, were written in the spring of 1816. The Rondeau brilliant and Fantasie were written during the last year of Schubert’s life. The two works were written for the young Czech violinist, Josef Slavik, who was described by Chopin as a second Paganini.

By the time Schubert’s sonata for piano and arpeggione was published, the instrument it was written for was long forgotten. The arpeggione is a fretted instrument with six strings tuned exactly like a classical guitar and held vertically between the knees. Contemporary performances are usually played with guitar, cello or other lower-stringed instruments.

The 2-CD set from Chandos recordings consist of the 4 sonatas for violin and piano, the sonata for piano and arpeggione (played with cello by Tim Hughes), the Rondeau brillant, Op.70, The Fantasie, Op. 159 and the Adagio for piano, violin and cello.

Watch a performance with an actual arpeggione.