The Violin Sonata sprang from a specific request, if with a twist: ‘Kerenza Peackock asked me to write a piece for her,’ says Rodrigo, ‘but actually she specified that it should not be a sonata. She really wanted a short, piece but fortunately she is a great friend who lets me get away with these things.’ It was Kerenza, too, who according to Rodrigo asked for the work’s most unusual feature: the scordatura in which the instrument’s G string is tuned down a tone lower than usual, to a bottom F, lending the work’s soundworld an extra depth and darkness.

The sonata is a substantial piece in four movements. After a slow introduction and lyrical first movement with pastoral atmosphere, there comes a recitativo that Rodrigo decided would offer a necessary contrast at this point. The busy, Schumannesque third movement is deceptive, tricking the ear into expecting it to be a finale. The true conclusion, however, is the slow movement proper, ending the work on a note of beauty and transformation. ‘The central idea,’ says Rodrigo, 'came from the image of a starry night by a lake transforming into dawn. But of course that image isn't necessary. Everyone should simply enjoy the music in their own way.' It is an image, nonetheless, that attracts him strongly; his first CD was entitled An everlasting dawn, in which he writes: 'Night gives way to day, sadness to joy, defeat to hope and death to rebirth.'

from notes by Jessica Duchen © 2021