Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Minor

By the time Grieg, Norway’s most famous composer, produced his Violin Sonata No. 3 in 1887 (the most popular of the three), he was an international celebrity. Aged 44, he had recently taken up residence at Troldhaugen (Troll Hill), a newly erected wooden house in Bergen (now the site of the Grieg Museum) that remained his base for the next 20 years. Between the autumn of 1886 and the following spring, he worked on the Third Sonata, his last completed chamber work, in a specially designed hut by the lake. The first movement is intensely dramatic, revelling in the striking contrast between its imposing opening material and the second theme’s delicate melodic tracery. Little wonder Grieg inscribed the original manuscript “Bold and exuberant, the way I like it”. The central “Allegretto” focuses on one of the composer’s most heart-warming melodies, setting up a finale whose simmering minor-key dancing is resolved in an exuberant final coda.