Aisslinn Nosky: A Richness of Fancy

The Strad Issue: September 2026

Description: Salon music at its finest from a still-underrated figure

Musicians: Aisslinn Nosky (violin) Yiheng Yang (fortepiano)

Works: Guest: Six Violin Sonatas op.1

Catalogue number: DEUX-ELLES DXL1216

Jane Mary Guest (1762–1846) emerged from Bath’s vibrant cultural activities into the circles of royalty in high-society London, counting Venanzio Rauzzini and Johann Christian Bach among her influential mentors. Her op.1 Sonatas, each comprising two movements, are of the salon ‘accompanied’ variety, in which the fortepiano part largely predominates.

Playing an Anton Walter replica fortepiano, Yiheng Yang relishes her role as the leading light, shaping bel canto melodies sensitively, as in the opening of no.3’s Adagio, recreating the galant charm of, for example, no.2’s graceful Minuetto and negotiating with athleticism and lightness of touch these works’ virtuoso demands; the Fifth Sonata’s technical challenges are especially adroitly executed. Her timing, poise and subtle expressive inflections are also striking, notably in no.4’s Allegro, and she adds ornamentation with seasoned expertise, particularly when elaborating transitional pauses with pertinent embellishment.

Aisslinn Nosky accompanies alertly and is consistently at one with Yang. The Sixth Sonata, printed on two staves as if for solo keyboard, affords these players free rein to forge their own ‘edition’ of its material, make textural ‘enhancements’ and give Nosky more prominence in the melodic dialogue, most remarkably in the concluding Presto. The natural, carefully balanced recording contributes positively to this celebration of a talented, long-neglected female musician.

Robin Stowell