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The Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano by César Franck is one of his best-known compositions, and is considered one of the finest sonatas for violin and piano ever written. It is an amalgam of his rich native harmonic language with the Classical traditions he valued highly, held together in a cyclic framework.

Jan Radzynski is a native of Warsaw, where he was born into a musical family. His mother encouraged and guided him in his early piano studies; and prior to the First World War, one of his great-grandfathers had been an army bandmaster in the military establishment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1969 Radzynski made aliya (settled in Israel) and studied at the music academy at Tel Aviv University. He graduated with diplomas in cello and in composition and theory in 1974 and received a bachelor of music degree as well. He furthered his composition studies with the Chilean-born Israeli composer León Schidlowsky. In 1977 he came to the United States to pursue graduate work, studying composition at Yale University with the world-renowned Polish composer Krzystof Penderecki, and then with Jacob Druckman. He received a master's degree in 1979 and another in 1980, followed by his doctorate in 1984. For fourteen years, beginning in 1980, he taught on Yale's faculty, and in 1994 he joined the faculty of The Ohio State University as a professor of composition-a post he has held since. He has also served there on the faculty of the Melton Center for Jewish Studies, and he has twice been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago.

Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg wrote three violin sonatas. They are all examples of his musical nationalism, since they all contain references or similarities to Norwegian folk song. Grieg wrote the sonatas between 1865 and 1887. Violin Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 8 was written in Copenhagen in 1865. Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major, Op. 13 was written in Oslo (then Christiania) in 1867. Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45 was completed while Grieg was living in Troldhaugen in 1887.

Violin Sonata No. 32 in B-flat major (K. 454) is a composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was completed in Vienna on April 21, 1784, and was published by Christoph Torricella in a group of three sonatas (together with the piano sonatas K. 284 and K. 333). The sonata was written for a violin virtuoso Regina Strinasacchi of Mantua to be performed by them together at a concert in the Kärntnerthor Theater in Vienna on April 29, 1784. Although Mozart had the piano part securely in his head, he did not give himself enough time to write it out, and thus it was performed with a sheet of blank music paper in front of him in order to fool the audience. According to a story told by his widow Constanze Mozart, the Emperor Joseph II saw the empty sheet music through his opera glasses and sent for the composer with his manuscript, at which time Mozart had to confess the truth, although that is likely to have amazed the monarch rather than cause his irritation.

Le Grand Tango, single-movement piece for cello and piano by Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla that expresses the spirit of nuevo tango (“new tango”), a melding of traditional tango rhythms and jazz-inspired syncopation. Written in 1982, Le Grand Tango was published in Paris—thus its French rather than Spanish title. Piazzolla studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, who encouraged him to stick with the tango rather than focusing solely on classical composition. Taking her words to heart, he began to experiment with the standard Argentine tango, diverging from the expected Latin harmonies and producing an edgier sound than that found in classic tango. He composed Le Grand Tango for Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who did not play it until 1990 or record it until 1996.

Ccantu pays homage to the fleeting beauty of the Cantuta, the national flower of Peru. Also known as the sacred flower of the Incas, it was widely used and considered holy during the Inca Empire. It is said that when the Inca, the maximum ruler of the Empire, participated in a ceremony, the path through which he would be carried was fully adorned with flowers of Cantuta. Its importance cannot be underestimated; it was consecrated to the Sun god, their most important deity, and because of its beauty, it was cultivated all throughout the Inca Empire. I chose to use its original name in Quechua, the language of pre-Hispanic Peru, because of its strong association with ancient Peruvians.

Midori Samson Sunset Song for bassoon and piano was written and premiered in 1994 at the Los Angeles Museum of Art, Bing Theater. It is the composer's second large work featuring the bassoon as soloists (after Hexen) and like Hexen it is also dedicated to bassoonist Judith Farmer who premiered it with the composer at the piano. Sunset Song is technically a tour de force for both the bassoon and the piano. It is a happy, sensuous, obsessive and at times mocking often reflecting the time in which it was written and the events of a Mexico tour that followed the first performance during which the piece underwent revisions. Sunset Song starts with an introduction played by the bassoon almost entirely. This introduction uses elements of 1950's pop music. A middle section fallows where a static -almost Middle Eastern- ostinato rhythmic pattern beats with increasing tension. This pattern is then transformed to a Latin beat which finally returns the piece to the opening mood. The bassoon ends the piece in an irreverent tone, with a pitch written two octaves above the official limit of the instrument’s register. The title Sunset Song was inspired by California’s sunsets and the sun setting on the Pacific Ocean. @KansasPublicRadio

Tender, romantic, and so elementally lovely that it seems we have carried this melody inside us all our lives — that’s Estrellita, the “little star” that is surely one of the most popular songs in the world. Estrellita was composed by Manuel Ponce, a 20th-century Mexican composer, who grew up in a musical family and received his musical training from his parents. It is the single work for which he is best known.