Sonate-poème

Commissioned by Renaud Capuçon, the sonata is composed of three movements, the first two of which are linked together.

I began composing this work with the second movement - Nocturne - thus delving spiritually and musically into the very heart of the work.

Chronologically, this was followed by the composition of the Finale, Presto, whose form recalls a scherzo, and the presence of a coure trio before returning to the virtuosity and the lively articulation, turning sarcastic, characteristic of the movement.

I finished the composition with the first movement - Aria -, presenting two thematic motifs whose characters complement each other, proposing a fairly free sonata form, which reveals the formal and symbolic flexibility of the "Poem".

The relationship between musical "poetics" and the form I use in this sonata is reminiscent of Ernest Chausson's Poème and Charles Tournemire's Sonate-Poème . Karol Szymanowski, one of my favorite composers, had an influence on me that I accept, both in the lyricism and in the writing for violin in my Sonate-Poème .

The taste for mystery through complex and unexpected harmonies is mixed in me with the balance between the light of the high notes on the violin and the deep bass on the piano.

Being a violinist myself and composing on the piano, I was given immediate access to the instrumental realization of my mental projection of the work. By encouraging me to compose what I would enjoy playing on the violin as well as on the piano, the instrumentalist in me came to complete and shape the score as it was written.

The first work in my corpus combining the violin and the piano, my two instruments, the Sonata-Poem reveals the most intimate part of my personality.

Elise Bertrand