Gál, Hans: Sonate in D

The Austrian-Hungarian Hans Gál (1890-1987) is one of the most important and most successful composers and musicologists of the 20th century. He studied in Vienna where he later worked as a teacher, completed a doctorate on compositions by the young Beethoven, and was appointed director of the Mainz Musikhochschule. During the time of National Socialism he emigrated to Scotland where he worked as a highly renowned and awarded composer ('Order of the Empire', among others) for almost five decades. His two-movement violin sonata, completed around 1933, is not academic but full of late Romantic reminiscences, holding subtly balanced tonal surprises in the scherzo. Suited for both private music-making and concert performances.