Sonata No. 2 in D minor op. 121

Schumann's second Sonata for violin and piano was published in October / November 1851, only a few weeks after the first work of this genre (HN 428). This highly virtuoso sonata, in its Finale in particular, is distinguished by the narrow thematic "sequence" of the different movements. Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, the composer’s biographer, reports what Schumann would have said “jokingly and kindly”: “The first Violin Sonata did not please me for this reason, I made a second one , I hope it will be more successful. " Schumann was probably alluding here to the great expressive and character differences of these sonatas: while the first, written in three movements, is rather of a melancholy and somber mood, the second, "Great Sonata" in four movements, overflows with vitality and ends brilliantly in D major.