1919: Boulanger, Janáček, Elgar & Debussy Benjamin Baker & Daniel Lebhardt

• Leoš Janáček (1854 - 1928): Sonata for Violin and Piano:
• 1 Janáček: Sonata for Violin and Piano: I. Con moto 05:15
• 2 Janáček: Sonata for Violin and Piano: II. Ballada: Con moto 05:08
• 3 Janáček: Sonata for Violin and Piano: III. Allegretto 02:45
• 4 Janáček: Sonata for Violin and Piano: IV. Adagio 04:45
• Lili Boulanger (1893 - 1918): Two Pieces for Violin and Piano:
• 5 Boulanger: Two Pieces for Violin and Piano: No. 1, Nocturne 02:44
• 6 Boulanger: Two Pieces for Violin and Piano: No. 2, Cortège 01:53
• Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918): Sonata for Violin and Piano:
• 7 Debussy: Sonata for Violin and Piano: I. Allegro vivo 05:09
• 8 Debussy: Sonata for Violin and Piano: II. Intermède: Fantasque et léger 04:25
• 9 Debussy: Sonata for Violin and Piano: III. Finale: Très animé 04:37
• Lili Boulanger: D’un matin de printemps:
• 10 Boulanger: D’un matin de printemps 05:00
• Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934): Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 82:
• 11 Elgar: Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 82: I. Allegro 08:23
• 12 Elgar: Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 82: II. Romance: Andante 08:10
• 13 Elgar: Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 82: III. Allegro, non troppo 08:24
• Total Runtime 01:06:38

Info for 1919: Boulanger, Janáček, Elgar & Debussy

The 1910s were a period of extraordinary turbulence and change. Revolutions and war left monarchies and empires fallen and the social order irreversibly altered. The music on this album emerges from various points in that eventful decade, but all of it records vividly a world that was shortly to vanish forever – a world to which the year 1919 was already a coda.

Indeed, the pieces chosen by Benjamin Baker and Daniel Lebhardt for their second Delphian recording also speak from a decade of musical endings. Claude Debussy and Lili Boulanger both died in 1918, two extraordinary careers cut short early; Baker and Lebhardt’s programme includes some of their last works. Edward Elgar lived on for another fifteen years, but wrote little more to match the four major compositions which emerged from his pen in 1918 and 1919.

Leoš Janáček, by contrast, was about to enter an astonishing Indian summer of creativity; his violin sonata stands on the cusp, inspired by Janáček’s hopes that the war might lead to independence for his beloved Czech lands.

"By 1919, two of the named composers were dead and a third was worn out. Only Leos Janacek was firing on all cylinders – indeed, on more cylinders than he ever had before. If 1919 was a benchmark, it is not evident from their lifecycles. However, the year does mark an end-point for the war era and these sonatas exist in that immediate past, with no thought of present or future ... Bringing these disparities to life are two UK-based musicians, the New Zealand violinist Benjamin Baker and the Hungarian pianist Daniel Lebhardt. If they strive a little too hard for conventional beauty in Janacek, their austerity is perfect for Debussy and Elgar, evoking a restrained sympathy for these morbid confessions The playing is marvellously poised, an exemplary concept album aptly adapted to each composer’s circumstances and individuality. Baker and Lebhardt tell four very human stories, each of them flawed. I was on the edge of my seat throughout." (La Scena Musicale)

Benjamin Baker, violin
Daniel Lebhardt, piano

No biography found.

Booklet for 1919: Boulanger, Janáček, Elgar & Debussy