| Violin Sonata | |
| Subtitle: | No. 2 |
| Composer: | Robert Schumann |
| Image Upright: | 0.9 |
| Key: | D minor |
| Opus: | 121 |
| Dedication: | Ferdinand David |
| Composed: | November |
| Movements: | 4 |
The Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121, by Robert Schumann was completed in November 1851,[1] Dedicated to the violinist Ferdinand David, the sonata received its first public performance from Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim on 29 October 1853 in Düsseldorf, in a concert that marked the beginning of a long term musical collaboration.
The work is in four movements:
The first movement begins with a stately sequence of chords, the contour of which is then used for the first subject proper. The fourth bar of this theme contains a distinctive syncopated rhythm that plays a role in the link to the second subject, and is also used extensively in the development.[2] The vigorously driving second movement in B minor (vi in relation to the home key) is of the scherzo genre, and appears to have influenced the young Johannes Brahms, particularly in the C minor scherzo he wrote for the F-A-E Sonata. Near the end of this movement, the chorale melody "Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ" is quoted triumphantly in the major. The relatively serene G major third movement is a set of variations, opening with a passage of violin pizzicato triple-stops, mirroring the chordal introduction of the first movement. The finale returns to the key and mood of the beginning, with a long and dramatic trajectory toward an exuberant conclusion in the major.