Sonatine in C (live recording!)

Hello!

Here is the recording of two movements from my Sonatine in C. This piece was composed for two friends of mine in my theory class at conservatory, and we had a lot of fun putting the thing together. While not my largest or most important piece, it was an exercise in a kind of neoclassicist compositional style I've otherwise left behind.

The middle movement of the piece wasn't performed due to time constraints on this recital, which is unfortunate because it forms the harmonic and metric hinge between the outer movements. Hopefully I will have a complete recording of the piece soon!

In the mean time, I would love anyone's thoughts on the piece if y'all are willing to share!

Score video

Edited December 24, 2025Dec 24 by mercurypickles

Hi @mercurypickles!

For the 1st movement the 1st theme’s marching mood is well stood out, while the 2nd subject is more reflective and I like the accompaniment all the time. I love the brief passage to pathos in b.70 (the 2nd subject for recap right?). I do think the octave sign doesn’t need to be written there.

I like the 3rd movement, the pathos reminds me of Shostakovich, and the modulation to tritone to F sharp minor is well prepared. The pizzicato passage which follows is very interesting, particularly when Bartok pizz. and normal pizz mix together. B.91 is especially expressive with all those exotic notes. Thx very much for sharing this, in particular with the wonderful performance by the violinist and cellist!

Btw, will you also share the 2nd and potentially 4th movements to us?

P.S. Is the violinist in your excerpt @Irene Huang? I remember she submitted a piece to one of our competition and played very beautifully!

Henry

Hi @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu!

 Thank you for taking the time to listen to and respond to my piece, it always means a lot. Yes, the violinist here is the wonderful @Irene Huang, a classmate of mine at school. 

There is a second movement to this piece but not a fourth, the whole thing has a runtime of only about ten minutes. 

It’s funny to me that you mentioned Shostakovich, I wrote the third movement right after attending our school’s Shostakovich festival back in October. I began sketching it after a performance of the 1st, 7th and 8th string quartets and 2nd piano trio. The 7th quartet is one of my favorite pieces of chamber music and I think you can hear bits of it in the third movement here. 

If I can get a recording of the whole thing I would gladly share it, as the second movement forms an important structural (rhythmic and tonal) hinge between the outer movements.