"Lewis Lockwood and Mark Kroll's volume The Beethoven Violin Sonatas is the first scholarly book in English devoted exclusively to the Beethoven sonatas and deals with them in unprecedented depth. Serving readers, listeners, and performers as a companion to the sonatas, it presents seven critical and historical essays by some of the most important American and European Beethoven specialists of our time.

The first in over half a century to be devoted to a detailed analysis of the complete Beethoven sonatas for violin and piano, this book arose from the author's desire to pass on to a younger generation more than sixty years' experience as a practising musician and teacher. Professor Rostal addresses himself to professional and amateur musicians alike, to students and to listeners, all of whom will derive pleasure and enlightenment from his words. Each of the ten Sonatas is carefully discussed, the manuscripts and first and later editions meticulously compared. Musicians will find technical and interpretative problems approached and solved and the music-lover a helpful listener's guide to these ever-popular masterpieces. As the Amadeus Quartet's Preface says of this important book, It is a "must" for all students and performers, and is a "must" for all lovers of Beethoven.' A renowned violinist and teacher, Professor MAX ROSTAL studied music under Arnold Ros and Carl Flesch. Founder and President of the European String Teachers' Association, he has made many recordings and is the editor of numerous wirks in the violin repertoire.

Notation in Johannes Brahms's sonata scores tells violinists and pianists far more than merely what pitches to play and how long to play them--if read carefully, these scores reveal an immense amount of expression, both of musical and human essences. Joel Lester's Brahms's Violin Sonatas magnifies key passages from these scores, revealing in clear and accessible language how the composer built his themes and musical narratives and how, ultimately, Brahms's music came to sound Brahmsian. Through close readings and annotated musical examples, Brahms's Violin Sonatas guides practitioners to read scores with care and to develop their own informed interpretation of the pieces, eschewing the notion of a single "correct" interpretation of the historical score. By exploring not only the sonatas' musical elements, but also their relationship to important events in the composer's life, Lester shows how subtle components can communicate the gestures, moods, personalities, and emotions that make Brahms's music so compelling. A companion volume to the author's award-winning 1999 study Bach's Works for Solo Violin: Style, Structure, and Performance (OUP), Brahms's Violin Sonatas is a clear and practical guide to understanding and performing Brahms's music in the present.

The five sonatas in this edition exhibit Allen Sapp’s characteristic expansive lyricism and depth of expression. Violin Sonata I was composed in 1942–43 while Sapp was studying with Nadia Boulanger and Aaron Copland. Following his service in Europe during World War II, he composed his Violin Sonata II and Viola Sonata in 1948. Klaus George Roy, in his review of a Boston performance by Joseph De Pasquale, called Sapp’s Viola Sonata “a work of beauty and immediate emotional appeal. There is a genuine lyric line and warmth of expression, carried by a real mastery of the polyphonic medium. . . . Who says the moderns can’t write a melody?” While these first three string sonatas were cast in a neoclassical style, Violin Sonatas III (1960) and IV (1981) are written with more chromatically complex harmonies and employ serial composition techniques, yet still exhibit a strong tonal orientation. Sapp considered Violin Sonata IV as the beginning of his late phase of composition, and possibly the most memorable of his works.

Classical guitarists---both students and professional performers---require the same high-quality editions that their pianist colleagues have come to expect from Alfred Music. Our Classical Guitar Masterworks Editions continue the Alfred Music tradition of providing carefully edited, beautifully presented music for practice and performance. This edition of J. S. Bach's masterpieces for solo violin, artfully transcribed for classical guitar by renowned performer, recording artist, and pedagogue Nicholas Goluses, is an essential addition to any classical guitarist's library. Including a thoughtful, scholarly preface on the art of transcribing Bach for the guitar, drawn from Goluses' doctoral dissertation, studying this edition will be edifying for any serious classical guitarist. Goluses' approach to putting these pieces on the guitar, and his thoughtful fingerings, will help overcome the complexities of playing this important and challenging music.