The four short movements of the Second Violin Sonata (composed in 1953) run through without a break. The violin hesitantly embarks on a song-like theme but the piano withholds the implied harmonies (the first notes of this theme form an idée fixe which appears in a new transformation in each movement). After fierce semitonal strife, the opening theme is resumed, the piano still casting doubt on the tonality. The idée fixe reappears in a stormy scherzando, and again in the wistful, waltz-like third movement. After a ferocious interruption the song is resumed, leading into an Adagio molto 4/4 in which the original theme reappears in a broad legato version, harmonic ambiguities at last resolved in the final bars.
from notes by Hugo Cole © 1988
