While Carl Loewe may be unfamiliar nowadays, in the previous century he was well-known. He won praise from such notables as Weber, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Wagner and in Vienna, earned the epithet "the north German Schubert." His five piano sonatas, composed between 1819 and 1847, constitute an encapsulation of mid-nineteenth-century trends, such as the musical unification of several movements and the use of a program. The Piano Sonatas of Carl Loewe , the first comprehensive examination of Loewe's piano sonatas, exposes these virtually unknown yet valuable works to the present-day musician and defines their position within Classic and Romantic styles.
"Dr. Salmon's study is immensely important, for awareness of Loewe's sonatas affects the entire picture of the genre in the nineteenth century. The examination of the music is thorough and insightful, and Salmon's observations reveal the fascinating and often highly creative ideas of the composer, who deserves to be regarded as a progressive and imaginative transitional figure in the German Romantic movement between the generations of Beethoven and Schumann. In addition to the author's perceptive analysis of the music, the remarkable breadth of knowledge and understanding he brings to his argument enable him to place it convincingly in the context of both historical and aesthetic developments." (Douglass Seuton, Professor of Musicology, The Florida State University)
"John Salmon has produced a well-researched, highly readable account of Loewe, composer chiefly of ballad songs and some piano music. Although now nearly forgotten, Loewe was an active cog during the heart of Germany's musical Romanticism." (William S. Newman, Professor Emeritus, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
"'The Piano Sonatas of Carl Loewe' is a fascinating volume, where Dr. Salmon has put on display a rich keyboard literature. Not to know these works would be a shame, as they constitute an interesting world of stylistic traits of the Classic and Romantic sonata-idea - a work of solid scholarship as well as excellent writing." (David Dubal, Professor of Piano Literature, The Juilliard School)
"John Salmon has produced a well-researched, highly readable account of Loewe, composer chiefly of ballad songs and some piano music. Although now nearly forgotten, Loewe was an active cog during the heart of Germany's musical Romanticism." (William S. Newman, Professor Emeritus, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
"'The Piano Sonatas of Carl Loewe' is a fascinating volume, where Dr. Salmon has put on display a rich keyboard literature. Not to know these works would be a shame, as they constitute an interesting world of stylistic traits of the Classic and Romantic sonata-idea - a work of solid scholarship as well as excellent writing." (David Dubal, Professor of Piano Literature, The Juilliard School)