What better way to ring in Musica Viva Australia’s first year at The Edge than with two of Australia’s best and brightest young musicians? Violinist Grace Clifford and pianist Laurence Matheson will appear in concert together to present three works of great emotional power.

Opening with Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 21 in E Minor, this is sombre, almost severe music, composed during the time that Mozart’s beloved mother died. Grief is the underlying emotional current here, and the sonata culminates in a finale of halting phrases.

Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 3 is an odd, fascinating work that contains extreme contrasts of mood – wild passion gives way to stillness, capped off by a finale of almost Bacchanalian intensity.

Closing out the program is Grieg’s Violin Sonata No.2. Composed while Grieg was on his honeymoon, it’s a work that revels in the pleasures of life and draws inspiration from Norwegian folk music. It’s almost beatific.

MOZART Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 21 in E Minor, K.304
SCHUMANN Violin Sonata No. 3, WoO 27
GRIEG Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 13

Grace Clifford violin
Laurence Matheson piano

W | https://www.musicaviva.com.au/concert-season/2022/grace-clifford-laurence-matheson/