Cello Sonata No.1 in B flat major Op.45 (1838)

1 Allegro vivace 2 Andante 3 Allegro assai

Having tested the technique of his cellist brother Paul in the virtuoso Variations concertantes in 1829, Mendelsson presented him nine years later with a work as intellectually challenging as anything written for cello and piano up to that time, not excluding the Beethoven sonatas. As the opening theme of the Allegro vivace suggests, Beethoven’s Sonata in A major Op.69 might well have been the initial inspiration here. Even so, Mendelssohn’s first movement is actually more ambitious in construction than Beethoven’s and more dramatic in conception. For all his faith in his brother’s ability to sustain an argument, however, Mendelssohn was as reluctant as most of his contemporaries to entrust the cello with a full-scale slow movement, the Andante being little more than a melodious interlude in ternary form. The Allegro assai revisits the material of the first movement, a variant of its opening theme becoming the comparatively leisurely basis of a sonata-rondo. In spite of some dramatic exchanges in the meantime, it last entry is a quiet expression of serenity.

Felix Mendelssohn’s brother Paul was a banker by profession. He was also an accomplished cellist, an intelligent musician and passionate performer, or so one would conclude from the Sonata that Felix wrote for him in 1838 – a work as intellectually challenging as anything written for cello and piano up to that time, not excluding the Beethoven sonatas.

As the opening theme of the Allegro vivace suggests, Beethoven’s Sonata in A major Op.69 might well have been the initial inspiration here. Even so, Mendelssohn’s first movement is actually more ambitious in construction than Beethoven’s and more dramatic in conception. The exposition is uncommonly extensive and, for Mendelssohn, it is unusually varied both thematically and harmonically. True, it is dominated by the main theme, which is first heard in its definitive, fervently expressive form on the cello in B flat major. But there is ample room for other ideas, the most significant of which is an urgent little theme in D minor introduced on the A-string over a worried rhythmic ostinato on the piano. This second subject does not exclude the main theme from the foreground for very long but it does represent the other side in an emotional and harmonic controversy that sustains the dynamic tension not only in the development but to the very last bars.

For all his faith in his brother’s ability to sustain an impassioned argument, Mendelssohn was as reluctant as most of his contemporaries (both here and in the later Cello Sonata in D major) to entrust the cello with a full-scale slow movement. The G minor Andante is an attractively melodious ternary construction with a G major middle section underpinned by echoes of the opening theme low in the pianist’s left hand and a reprise coloured by bizarre scoring for the piano. But it is no more than an interlude before the theme of the first movement is taken up again in the last.

The difference between the Allegro vivace and the Allegro assai is that, while the opening theme of the former is recalled in a variant form as the opening theme of the latter, it meets with less controversy in its new situation. In this case it is the comparatively leisured main theme of a sonata-rondo. The first episode includes contradictory material in D minor but, although that intervention gives rise to some dramatic exchanges, it does not, unlike its counterpoint in the first movement, insist on retaining its minor harmonies. So the last entry of the main theme is not a struggle but a quiet expression of serenity in B flat major.       

Felix Mendelssohn’s brother Paul was a banker by profession. He was also an accomplished cellist and, to judge by the Sonata that Felix wrote for him in 1838, an intelligent musician and passionate performer. The composer had already tested his brother’s technique in the Variations Concertantes Op.17 – an entertainingly uninhibited virtuoso piece that deserves better than its current neglect – but in the Sonata in B flat he presented Paul with a work as intellectually challenging as anything written for cello and piano up to that time, not excluding the Beethoven sonatas.

As the opening theme of the Allegro vivace suggests, Beethoven’s Sonata in A major Op.69 might well have been the initial inspiration here. Even so, Mendelssohn’s first movement is actually more ambitious in construction than Beethoven’s and more dramatic in conception. The exposition is uncommonly extensive (doubly so if the repeat marks are observed) and, for Mendelssohn, it is unusually varied both thematically and harmonically. True, it is dominated by the main theme, which is anticipated by the two instruments in unison in the opening bars and then presented in its definitive, fervently expressive form by the cello in B flat major. But there is ample room for other ideas, the most significant of which is an urgent little theme in D minor introduced on the A-string of the cello over a worried rhythmic ostinato on the piano. This second subject does not exclude the main theme from the foreground for very long but it does represent the other side in an emotional and harmonic controversy that sustains the dynamic tension not only in the development but throughout the movement. Even in the recapitulation the second subject persists in its adherence to minor keys, so motivating the heroic B flat major exploits of the main theme in the closing stages.

For all his faith in his brother’s ability to sustain an impassioned argument, Mendelssohn was as reluctant as most of his contemporaries (both here and in the later Cello Sonata in D major) to entrust the cello with a full-scale slow movement. The G minor Andante is an attractively melodious ternary construction with a G major middle section underpinned by echoes of the opening theme low in the pianist’s left hand and a reprise coloured by some bizarre scoring for the piano. But it is no more than an interlude before the theme of the first movement is taken up again in the last.

The difference between the Allegro vivace and the Allegro assai is that, while the opening theme of the former is recalled in a variant form as the opening theme of the latter, it meets with less controversy in its new situation. In this case it is the comparatively leisured main theme of a sonata-rondo, the first episode of which does indeed include contradictory material in D minor not unlike the second subject of the first movement. Although that intervention gives rise both here and in the development to some dramatic exchanges, when it is recalled in the recapitulation it does not, unlike its counterpoint in the first movement, insist on retaining its minor harmonies. So the last entry of the main theme is not a struggle but a quiet expression of serenity in B flat major.