Classical Music | Cello Music

Recorded on 10/16/2007, uploaded on 01/16/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Sonata for cello and piano in d minor (Prologue; Serenade; Finale)

Debussy's Cello Sonata was meant to be one of six in a group of sonatas; only three were completed. Finished in 1915, it is brief, eloquent, endlessly colorful, and detailed.  The piece demands a great variety of cello techniques - left-hand pizzicato, flautendo bowing, harmonics and portamenti.  The details of the piano writing are also painstakingly specific, leaving the performers with a very precise picture of the composer's wishes.

The first movement, is broad and majestic, full of contrasts and push-and-pull exchanges between the piano and cello.  The second movement, Sérénade: Modérément animé, is impish and rhythmically playful, with sudden and uncertain forays into flirtatious triple meter dance.  The last movement, Finale: Animé, léger et nerveux, is a driven ABA form. The A sections are full of yearning and vigor, while the B-perhaps the heart of the movement-is a deeply sensuous, languorous interlude.

D. Skoraczewski

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.