Robert Gibbs – violin
Oliver Davies – Steinway piano, 1864

The Great War & the Violin: V

Reger 3 movements from Sonata in C minor, Op. 139 (1915)
Adolf Busch Capriccio in A minor (1917)
Elgar Sonata, Op. 82 (1917)

Taking its cue from the Armistice anniversary, this final programme in the series Robert Gibbs and Oliver Davies began in 2014 could prove to be the most moving of all Max Reger’s last sonata shares the elegiac quality of much of his late music – he died in 1916, leaving several musical memorials to the German fallen. His favoured partner in the sonata’s early performances was the 24 year old Adolf Busch, here represented in a tender tribute to his wife.

Elgar’s Sonata, like his other late instrumental works, is itself in part a lament for lost friends and shattered values. Robert’s decision to play it on W.H. Reed’s violin – the instrument on which this music was first heard, both by the composer himself and in public performance – is sure to add a unique poignancy to this occasion.