[1] His Cello Concerto in E minor of 1919 completed the quartet of introspective and melancholy works that comprised Elgar's last major creative spurt before his death in 1934.
When the sonata was close to completion, Elgar offered to dedicate it to a family friend, Marie Joshua, and wrote to her: "I fear it does not carry us any further but it is full of golden sounds and I like it, but you must not expect anything violently chromatic or cubist".
[1][2] The Violin Sonata in E minor was completed on 15 September 1918,[2] and first performed on 13 March 1919 at a semi-public meeting of the British Music Society by Elgar's friend W. H. Reed with Anthony Bernard on piano.
[3] Albert Sammons and William Murdoch were the sonata's greatest champions in the early years,[4] and they made a recording on 2 February 1935.
[6] Those who have recorded it include Hugh Bean, Yehudi Menuhin, Max Rostal, Lydia Mordkovitch, Nigel Kennedy, Midori, Maxim Vengerov, Tasmin Little, Jonathan Crow, Daniel Hope and Jennifer Pike.