Piano Sonatas, Volume 2

Piano Sonatas, Volume 2

Some of the music is not pretty
Andrew Violette
Andrew Violette
Catalog Number: 
new classical

Brooklyn, NY

Release Date: 
Oct 25, 2005
3 CD
Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 - Nos. 2-6iTunes Artist's PageiTunes Album Page
Song TitleTimePrice
1.Piano Sonata No. 611:53$-1
2.Piano Sonata No. 4: I. the Bell Tolls Thrice02:17$0.99
3.Piano Sonata No. 4: II. Prelude04:12$0.99
4.Piano Sonata No. 4: III. Dance I01:02$0.99
5.Piano Sonata No. 4: IV. Dance II02:42$0.99
6.Piano Sonata No. 4: V. Tarantella Quasi Allegro Barbaro04:19$0.99
7.Piano Sonata No. 4: VI. Adagio19:49$-1
8.Piano Sonata No. 2: I. Slow08:43$0.99
9.Piano Sonata No. 2: II. Ostinato I01:34$0.99
10.Piano Sonata No. 2: III. Ostinato II02:23$0.99
11.Piano Sonata No. 3: I. Adagio Assai12:42$-1
12.Piano Sonata No. 3: II. Tarantella: Grazioso01:17$0.99
13.Piano Sonata No. 3: III. Motive (after F. Chopin's Polonaise No. 7 In a Flat Major, Op. 61, "Polonaise-fantaisie")00:13$0.99
14.Piano Sonata No. 3: IV. Adagio Fantastico08:11$0.99
15.Piano Sonata No. 3: V. Canto19:45$-1
16.Piano Sonata No. 3: VI. Recitative01:01$0.99
17.Piano Sonata No. 3: VII. Canto Continued00:51$0.99
18.Piano Sonata No. 3: VIII. Recitative Continued02:28$0.99
19.Piano Sonata No. 3: IX. the Polonaise-Fantasy Deconstructed04:32$0.99
20.Piano Sonata No. 3: X. Canto End01:59$0.99
21.Piano Sonata No. 3: XI. Adage Double04:15$0.99
22.Piano Sonata No. 3: XII. Tarantella: Vivace02:33$0.99
23.Piano Sonata No. 3: XIII. Molto Sostenuto01:07$0.99
24.Piano Sonata No. 3: XIV. Death/Love Music14:48$-1
25.Piano Sonata No. 5: I. Chorale-Fantasy: Maestoso Ma Con Moto Di Tutta Forza02:28$0.99
26.Piano Sonata No. 5: II. Allegro Con Brio04:26$0.99
27.Piano Sonata No. 5: III. Refrain00:18$0.99
28.Piano Sonata No. 5: IV. Allegro Barbaro03:25$0.99
29.Piano Sonata No. 5: V. Chaconne: Moderato, "When I Was Sinking Down"02:58$0.99
30.Piano Sonata No. 5: VI. Ritardando05:39$0.99
31.Piano Sonata No. 5: VII. Adagio33:11$-1
32.Piano Sonata No. 5: VIII. Refrain00:28$0.99
33.Piano Sonata No. 5: IX. Moderato Quasi Conductus04:18$0.99
34.Piano Sonata No. 5: X. Trio Quasi Caccia01:44$0.99
35.Piano Sonata No. 5: XI. Moderato (da Capo)02:30$0.99
36.Piano Sonata No. 5: XII. Presto03:31$0.99
37.Piano Sonata No. 5: XIII. Choral05:48$0.99
One Sheet: 

Inimitable pianist/composer Andrew Violette connects the alpha and omega of Piano Sonatas 1 and 7 (Innova 587) in Piano Sonatas Volume 2 (Innova 641).

Andrew Violette lives and works in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. His previous Innova CDs are Piano Sonatas 1 and 7 (587) and The Death of the Hired Man (I608). He is currently working on a nine-hour opera based on Milton’s Paradise Lost to be performed over the course of one evening.



It's possible to view the sequence of Violette's sonatas as one extremely long piece. Everything in his music grows out of something that preceded it or anticipates something that will follow. It lives at the point of paradox -- organized with mathematical precision, it sounds improvised; it develops complex ideas through minimalist repetitions. It traverses a wide universe of techniques, styles, and dynamics, clamorous sounds and shuddering silences, but its cumulative effect is unified, mystical, and ecstatic (the composer was once a monk). Some of the music is not pretty; if Violette is going to stare into the abyss, he is going to tell us what he sees there. The pounding rhythms are inexorable; there are influences and indirect quotations. His music often sounds like other music, but nothing else sounds or functions like it, which is a definition of originality. The composer's relationship to the piano is visceral, even violent -- as carnal as his music is spiritual.

By Richard Dyer