Julien-François Zbinden

Sonate en trio

The 'Sonate en Trio' op. 46 was commissioned by Hannelore Müller, member of the Barock Trio of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and composed 1969. The first version for historical instruments was premiered November 3rd 1969 at Town Hall in New York, with August Wenzinger, Hannelore Müller (viole di gamba) and Robert Conant, cembalo. Subsequent performances followed in Chicago, Washington and Boston.
I believed it would be prudent to offer a second version for viola, cello and piano. The writing is very direct, often polytonal, while the form is traditional: two lively outer movements frame a slow one, the latter being attached to the first one. The last part is entirely written in a 5/4 time signature.
The first performance of the second version was given June 25, 2006 by Gwenaëlle Kobyliansky, viola, Matthias Walpen, cello and Clara Cellich, piano in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland during a concert entirely dedicated to my works written for or with viola and has been produced on a CD (Quantaphon SP51 730, Hommage à Julien-François Zbinden).
Julien-François Zbinden, April 2011, Lausanne, Switzerland