Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) is a composer difficult to classify. A child of his time he kept aloof from the innovations of the modernists and dodecaphony. As son of a German father and a noble-born Venetian mother he was born in Venice and went to study in Munich. He became famous as an opera composer. His style is romantic, tinged with impressionism and the odd neoclassical hint. His aim was to create a “universal beauty” in his works, where no rules apply, but only a feeling of well-being and sensuousness. The keyword in this recording of the complete three Violin Sonatas is “Beauty”: far from the avant-garde and even from realism, he sought an ideal of timeless beauty, independent from the artistic movements of the moment, and for this reason he was often inspired in his works by eighteenth-century grace. Beautiful, idiomatic performances by the excellent Italian violinist David Alogna and pianist Costantino Catena, who both previously recorded for Brilliant Classics, o.a. works by Wolf Ferrari (piano works).