The Sonata in A flat dates from 1895, the year in which Stenhammar composed his best-known piano pieces, the Three Fantasies, Op. 11. Lucia Negro recorded it in the early-1980s for the Swedish Bluebell label. She played it well then and plays it even better now. She has a vital musical intelligence and great sensitivity, and makes out a strong case for the music. The debt to Beethoven and Mendelssohn – which Nielsen, one of Stenhammar’s greatest admirers, noted – is clearly evident, but no less so is the feeling for form which distinguished his mature music. The Violin Sonata, written four years later for the composer’s music partner, Tor Aulin, is no newcomer to disc. Mircea Saulesco recorded it with Janos Solyom in the mid-1960s (for EMI – nla) and there is a 1991 recording by Nils-Erik Sparf and Bengt Forsberg (Musica Sveciae) coupled with Aulin’s D minor Sonata.
Hans Kipfer is both engineer and producer and a second set of ears might have helped rectify an imbalance which favours the keyboard at the expense of the violin. Tale Olsson sounds a little colourless as a result though she is obviously a refined and sensitive player. The Mendelssohnian Allegro ma non tanto, which comes from the same year as the A flat Sonata, was intended to form part of a piano trio and the Allegro brillante in E flat is even earlier. Both pieces are derivative but delightful.'