Chamber sonata

The Kammersonate, for violin, cello and piano was composed in 1948 while Henze was working at the German theatre in Constance. It was the only chamber music written in a year which saw the composition of some of the composer's most acclaimed early works - including Wiegenlieder der Mutter Gottes ('Lullaby of the Blessed Virgin'), Das Wundertheater ('The Magic Theatre') and the solo cantata, Whispers from Heavenly Death - and gives clear evidence of the composer's instrumental skill already recognised in the First Symphony composed the previous year. Two richly polyphonic slow movements are flanked by a short introduction (light, detached, rhythmic), a short allegretto and a concluding Epilogo, a parting gesture recurring many times in the composer's music.