favorite 20th century violin sonatas and cello sonatas

[milk]

I'm really not a thread starter-er. I couldn't find this thread anywhere though and I really want to know. How about your top 5 in each category?

[Parsifal]

I thought you meant sonatas for violin and cello, which is one of my absolute favorite chamber music combinations, but I'm not sure I can even think of 5 examples (although every one I know is a favorite). 

[Parsifal]

How can I modify this so it's clear? I wanted to know favorite 20th century sonatas for violin and piano, and favorite 20th century sonatas for cello and piano. Actually I was going to say viola sonatas also but perhaps that's a scarcer repertoire. I didn't want to make separate threads. But I thought it ought to be here on GMG. Perhaps people could just list top 5 violin sonatas and top 5 cello sonatas? What do you think? If it's not interesting we can remove it.

What you meant was "favorite violin sonatas and favorite cello sonatas."  Since there is such a thing as a "violin and cello sonata," what you specified in your title is ambiguous.  I don't know if it is possible to edit the title of a thread.

My favorite violin and cello sonata is Ravel.  Second favorite is Honegger, then Martinu and Schulhoff.  But I just found out there may be one by Sessions.

(I guess some of those don't have the official title "Sonata.")

[71 dB]

Elgar - Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 82 - Lydia Mordkovitch/Julian Milford
Fauré - Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 117 - Paul Tortelier/Eric Heidsieck

[North Star]

Favourite Violin & Cello sonata: Ravel.

Solo Violin: Ysaÿe
Solo Cello: Britten suites, Kodaly Sonata

Violin & Piano: Janacek, Prokofiev Op. 80, Ravel, Enescu 3rd VS, Pärt (Fratres)

Cello & Piano: Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Debussy, Webern Op. 11    E: and Poulenc

[DaveF]

Just going to do the violin ones:

Debussy first, then in no particular order:

Nielsen 2 (love no.1 too, but it misses the century by 5 years)
Janáček
Elgar
Ravel

The Strauss is a tremendous one as well, but again it's from the 19th century.

[Todd]

Violin sonatas: Bartok, Janacek, Debussy, Faure 2 are my top choices; Schulhoff, Martinu, Prokofiev, Enescu, Ives, DSCH, Szymanoswki (Mythes, specifically, so not a sonata, but it's all good stuff) are almost top choices.

Cello sonatas: Debussy, DSCH, Faure are my top choices; Carter, Grieg, Martinu, Prokofiev are almost top choices.

[DavidW]

Bartok, Janacek, Debussy, Faure, Ravel, Prokofiev, Shostakovich.  The usual suspects.

[Parsifal]

Although often overlooked, I like the Vaughan-Williams Violin Sonata, and the Sonatas by Howells.  For viola, the Shostakovoch.  Are there any others?  Probably Hindemith wrote one.

For mainstream stuff, this release covers most of it.

[asin]B000E0W248[/asin]

I see the current price is $3,769.  I'd consider selling my copy for that price. 

[kyjo]

Violin:

Prokofiev: Can't choose, but would probably go with no. 1 if absolutely forced to
Ravel
Debussy
Magnard
Monasypov (only found on YouTube-an absolutely thrilling work!)

Cello:

Rachmaninov
Shostakovich
Biarent
Debussy
Prokofiev

[TheGSMoeller]

Poulenc's Violin Sonata and Cello Sonata.

[kyjo]

Poulenc's Violin Sonata and Cello Sonata.

Definitely agree about the Cello Sonata-it was originally on my list, but then I remembered the Prokofiev.

[Sammy]

I'm really not a thread starter-er.

You are one now.

Throw in Walton's Violin Sonata; love that first movement.

[kyjo]

Here's the YT links to a recording (with score) of by far the most obscure piece on my list, the Violin Sonata of Tatar composer Almaz Monasypov (1925-2008), which is a exotically-tinged, lyrical work with soaring melodies. A great find for sore:

I: http://youtu.be/w2KgyI6iS60
II: http://youtu.be/Jsh6vbvTPa4
III: http://youtu.be/kfMJl4CuKW0

[Dax]

One worthwhile composer unmentioned so far is Skalkottas - sonatinas for both violin and piano and cello and piano. Also a Duo for violin and cello by the same composer: for the same combo a terrific Choros bis by Villa-Lobos. Kodaly, anyone?

[Daverz]

Corigliano wrote a VS that was his Op. 1.  I remember liking it a lot, but it's been a long time.  I'll have to give it another listen.

Prokofiev: VS 1
Janacek VS
Martinu Cello Sonatas
Szymanowski: Mythes
Kodaly: Solo Cello Sonata
Ravel: Sonata for Violin & Cello
Part: Fratres (in the Violin & Piano configuration)

Of Faure's 2 Violin Sonatas and 2 Cello Sonatas, only VS No. 1 is 19th Century.

I'm not really sure where I stand with Enescu's VS3.

[amw]

I quite like all of Medtner's three violin sonatas, which are 20th century by date of composition at least. Op. 44, sometimes called the "Spring" though that's a quite generic title, is probably my favourite (it and the Sonata Epica, Op. 58, are somewhat like Brahms violin sonatas stretched out to a symphonic scale—the Epica at 47 min/1224 bars is actually one of the longest sonatas not by Sorabji or Andrew Violette I'm aware of). Another in-name-only 20th century violin sonata is Dohnányi's which is not as substantial as his cello sonata (which I think dates from, like, 1899 and just barely avoids being eligible for this thread) but still enjoyable.

Another as-yet unmentioned piece which I quite like is Ginastera's Cello Sonata. There's also a cello sonata by Roberto Gerhard, which I don't have but it looks promising, and by Britten, which I heard ages ago and enjoyed at the time but don't remember much about now.

Corigliano wrote a VS that was his Op. 1.  I remember liking it a lot, but it's been a long time.  I'll have to give it another listen.

The Corigliano violin sonata is a fairly pleasant (though, to me, unmemorable) neoclassical-ish piece which betrays no inkling that it was written later than 1930. I recall preferring it to Corigliano's later music, but I prefer most music to Corigliano's later music so that's probably a little unfair.

[Daverz]

The Corigliano violin sonata is a fairly pleasant (though, to me, unmemorable) neoclassical-ish piece which betrays no inkling that it was written later than 1930.

We're farther in time from 1963 than Corigliano was from 1930.  I no longer pay attention to the idea that a work was written "for the wrong era".

[milk]

Although often overlooked, I like the Vaughan-Williams Violin Sonata, and the Sonatas by Howells.  For viola, the Shostakovoch.  Are there any others?  Probably Hindemith wrote one.

For mainstream stuff, this release covers most of it.

[asin]B000E0W248[/asin]

I see the current price is $3,769.  I'd consider selling my copy for that price. 

For viola sonatas, which I also wanted to put into this thread, I can say that these are very enjoyable listening. But, I can't say where they go on any list.

[milk]

I'm still deciding on all of this. I've only been listening to classical music seriously for about 5 years. If you asked me a year ago about the 20th century, I would have shrugged my shoulders. Now that I'm into it, I'm still not sure how everything ranks. At the moment, Shostakovich's violin and viola and cello sonatas are at the top. So are Debussy's, Bartok's and Prokofiev's violin sonatas and Debussy's and Rachmaninoff's cello sonatas. I was listening to some of Poulenc's chamber work today and found it to be really high quality. The same goes for Martinu. I'm not sure about the others yet. I've recently discovered (thanks to various posters on GMG) Weinberg and Koechlin. These are two composers that I really like a lot. Weinberg has wonderful Violin sonatas and a magnificent cello sonata. I'm tempted to at least put Weinberg's cello sonata in the top five, it's so moving. I'm not sure exactly yet, but Koechlin's violin and viola sonatas are certainly very good. Another composer to mention is Cras. His violin and piano pieces are not called sonatas, but they're close enough and they're very attractive. I purchased a recording by Jean-Pierre Ferey & Marie-Annick Nicolas. I think this is very fine music. Bartok is the only one here that's not (strictly) tonal...maybe. I would like to get more into that realm. Maybe.