Sonata for Solo Violin

This Violin Sonata, composed in August 1981, has four movements:
I – after a brief rhetorical flourish setting out the principal intervallic shapes, develops them in a closely-argued sonata-allegro, vigorous and energetic with more lyrical interludes en route.
II  poco adagio  – is a set of double variations, the first theme slow and meditative, the second gently-flowing and wistful; the final variant of the first dissolves into a cadenza before closing in a
dialogue-coda.
III  – is an extended scherzo, light, airy and silly, twice interrupted by rude, robust episodes from some un-named opera buffa (with opera seria characters too); the second explodes in a quartet in amorous/acrimonious exchange over all four strings: and the entire structure yields two times to a (non-operatic) Trio, melodious and much slower.
IV  – is entitled Frage – an impassioned asking of an impossible question – and Antwort – its graceful/gentle answer, in three strains growing gradually longer and calming into eventual repose on the entire piece’s central note (if not its literal key), B.