Saint-Sans: Violin Sonata No. 1

Soaring, heroic, and thrillingly virtuosic…words which might describe Camille Saint-Sans’ Violin Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, written in 1885. Critics noted that in design it resembled, though not tonally, Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata in its brilliant effect. Saint-Sans jokingly called the piece “the hippogriffsonata”, insinuating that only a mythical creature could play the violin part.