Valerie Steenken * Strauss Respighi & Ponce: Violin Sonatas [New CD]

IBS Classical presents a distinguished new release featuring violinist Valerie Steenken and pianist Ricardo Alí Alvarez, performing three major violin sonatas by Richard Strauss, Ottorino Respighi, and Manuel M. Ponce. Conceived as a journey across German, Italian, and Mexican traditions, the programme bridges late-Romantic lyricism and early-twentieth-century modern expressivity.Strauss's youthful Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 18, combines soaring melodic invention with symphonic breadth, while Respighi's Sonata in B minor unfolds as a grand, rhetorically charged architecture culminating in a majestic Passacaglia. Ponce's Sonata breve, written in Paris in 1930, distills neoclassical elegance and Mexican lyricism into a concise yet refined statement of style.In this recording, Valerie Steenken (Concertmaster of Spanish National Orchestra) and Ricardo Alí Alvarez (Professor at Reina Sofía School) offer performances of exceptional unity and insight. Steenken's luminous tone, phrasing of great naturalness, and expressive precision find in Alvarez's pianism an ideal counterpart-sensitive, detailed, and dynamically sculpted. Their dialogue reveals a profound understanding of structure and sound, bringing each work's emotional core vividly to life. Through this project, IBS Classical reaffirms it's dedication to artistic excellence and to the renewal of essential chamber repertoire for violin and piano, presented here in a performance of rare coherence and expressive depth.