Violinist Eriikka Maalismaa and pianist Emil Holmström bring life to Robert Schumann’s three violin sonatas with period instruments on this new album. The unvarnished gut strings of the violin bring warm nuance, and together with the 1862 Erard grand piano they form a smooth sound of their era.

Robert Schumann composed his three sonatas for violin and piano between 1851 and 1853. The Second Sonata was born almost immediately after the First, but the genesis and survival of the Third one was much more complicated. Only a part of the score has survived along very tentative manuscripts. Maalismaa and Holmström have made deliberate solutions considering the ambiguous and incomplete material.

Eriikka Maalismaa performs regularly at festivals in Finland and abroad, arranges concerts, and designs programmes for her multiple ensembles. She has worked as the assistant concert master of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and continues her career as a soloist and chamber musician. She plays frequently as the orchestral leader and concertmaster with the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, the Jousia Ensemble, and performs as a guest player with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Maalismaa is also a member of the Avanti String Quartet. She studied at the Sibelius Academy and the Edsberg Chamber Music Institute.

Emil Holmström has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout he world. He appears frequently at Finnish music festivals and concert series and has been a featured soloist with notable Finnish orchestras, such as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, and Tapiola Sinfonietta. Holmström is a member of Finnish groups defunensemble and Uusinta Ensemble, and plays as a regular guest with the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. He graduated from the Sibelius Academy, and he was also a student of Marie-Françoise Bucquet in Paris.