Joseph Marx: Chamber Music Vol. 1 – Minna Pensola

This first volume of Joseph Marx’s chamber music charts a period of 30 years from the cello works of 1913–14 to the Violin Sonata No. 2, written in 1944, shortly before he ceased all composition. The Pastorale is characteristically subtle with impressionistic devices harnessed to ever-changing variations. The Suite in F major, for which the Pastorale was originally intended, balances a rural idyll with more sombre elements, informed by a noble Classical design. Violin Sonata No. 2, subtitled Frühlingssonate (‘Spring Sonata’), consciously re-uses material from earlier works to form a lyrical dance-like work irradiated by ingenious harmonic twists.