Concert programme — Bach, Kodály, Schumann & Prokofiev — Concert Programmes

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Suite No.2 in D minor for solo cello BWV 1008 (c 1720)

Prelude

Allemande

Courante

Sarabande

Menuet 1 - Menuet 2 - Menuet 1 da capo

Gigue

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)

Sonata for solo cello Op.8 (1915)

Allegro maestoso ma appassionato

Adagio - Con moto - Tempo I

Allegro molto vivace

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Fantasiestücke Op 73 (1849)

Zart und mit Ausdruck -

Lebhaft, leicht -

Rasch und mit Feuer

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Cello Sonata in C major Op.119 (1949)

Andante grave

Moderato

Allegro ma non troppo

There are all kinds ofd reasons why there have been so few successful works for unaccompanied violin or cello since Bach wrote his solo sonatas, partitas and suites during his time as Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Cöthen. Not the least of them is that those works are so supreme in their mastery and so profound in their thinking that they are more likely to intimidate than inspire anyone tempted to emulate them. The cello suites, however, consisting for the most part of less ambitiously structured dance movements and being less inclined to proliferate into counterpoint, are not quite as intimidating as the violon sonatas and partitas.

When Kodály wrote his brilliantly scored but profoundly serious Sonata for solo cello he was clearly not too worried by the Bach precedent. He followed the example of Bach’s Fifth Suite in changing the normal cello tuning but he did it in his own way - the two lowest strings, the C and G, are tuned down to B and F sharp - giving the work its distinctively dark colouring. At the same time he was thinking in terms not so much of counterpoint or baroque dance forms as Hungarian melody. The passionate opening declaration of the first movement, with its characteristic Hungarian rhythms, becomes the main theme of an extended sonata-form construction. The contemplative Adagio is illuminated by highly expressive episodes of folk-instrument improvisation with a left-hand pizzicato accompaniment. If the opening theme of the last movement derives from Beethoven, the rest of the material is Hungarian folk dance, surmounted towards the end by an extraordinary cadenza of tremolandos and trills bowed on the bridge and on the fingerboard.

While Schumann had a less than complete understanding of Bach’s solo sonatas, partitas and suites - he actually wrote piano accompaniments for all twelve of them - he certainly understood the cello. It seems at times that the instrument might have been invented to give expression to his most personal ideas, not only in works written for it but also in scores like the three Fantasiestücke for clarinet and piano which can sound even more characteristic in the cello version - in the intimately nostalgic first movement, the tenderly playful scherzo that follows and the recall of that material towards the end.

Prokofiev discovered the truth about the cello rather late in life, when he heard the then unknown Mstislav Rostropovich give a stunning performance of the excessively difficult Cello Concerto in E minor. “I am fascinated with your crazy instrument,” he told Rostropovich and went on to plan a series of cello works, including a solo sonata. He didn’t live to write the solo piece but he did complete the Sonata in C major for cello and piano, which is most resourcefully written for both instruments. The serious-minded opening theme which is perfectly conceived for the bottom register of the cello and which - after the often bizarre-sounding central Moderato - returns in sonorous triumph at the climax of the last movement is only the most significant example.