Cello sonatas

[gurnemanz]

I love the early-middle-late spread of the Beethoven Sonatas, Op 5, 69, 102. Richter & Rostropovich set is a classic.

I also like Grieg, Schumann, Fauré, Debussy (great version with Britten accompanying Rostropovich), and Shostakovich

[Richard Barrett]

(ah no, the former is simply a "duo")

Well exactly - the criterion that something should be called a sonata is rather arbitrary, not so much for music before 1950 or so, since in those days it was what people would tend to call a relatively extended and "serious" piece for one or two instruments, but (just to name a couple of things for cello and piano) excluding wonderful things like Zimmermann's Intercomunicazione or Feldman's Patterns in a chromatic field seems a little unnecessary!

[Boilk]

... Carter (one of his finest works)

Couldn't agree more with Suffolkcoastal. One of the meatiest Cello sonatas ever.
Actually it's almost a duo, given how demanding and interdependent the two parts often are!

My favourite recording is with Fred Sherry (Cello) and Paul Jacobs on the Nonesuch label.

[ahinton]

There's the massive one that Lekeu wrote when around 18 years of age; I'm not entirely convinced that it fulfils its self-evident ambition as well as his other chamber works do and, at over 50 minutes, it seems to lack sufficient concision of expression, but it has some fine writing in it nonetheless.

[Bryn]

I wonder if I might squeeze in John White's Cello and Tuba Machine, as excerpted below:

[Richard Barrett]

Actually it's almost a duo, given how demanding and interdependent the two parts often are!

... but what's the difference between a "duo" and a "sonata"? Now I'm confused.

[Beef Oven!]

... but what's the difference between a "duo" and a "sonata"? Now I'm confused.

With a duo, the two instruments share equally the musical argument and neither assumes a dominant role. With a sonata, the explicated instrument will lead, and the second or implied instrument takes a supporting subordinate role. I'm often on these boards, if you ever have technical music issues that you need a steer on.

[Dave2002]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. I may get round to compiling a list summarising the responses. In the meantime I have discovered the sonatas by Robert Fuchs - I'd never even heard of this composer before, and Martinu's 3rd sonata - http://open.spotify.com/track/7A9RGXyvjZTzxk0IrEe0Fm as well as reaffirming my liking for Dohnanyi's sonata. I also continue to be impressed by Mendelssohn - http://open.spotify.com/track/4LMdorhQA3OWh2PhCscJ12

It's going to take me a while to try out all or even most of the suggestions to date.

[teamsaint]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. I may get round to compiling a list summarising the responses. In the meantime I have discovered the sonatas by Robert Fuchs - I'd never even heard of this composer before, and Martinu's 3rd sonata - http://open.spotify.com/track/7A9RGXyvjZTzxk0IrEe0Fm as well as reaffirming my liking for Dohnanyi's sonata. I also continue to be impressed by Mendelssohn - http://open.spotify.com/track/4LMdorhQA3OWh2PhCscJ12

It's going to take me a while to try out all or even most of the suggestions to date.

well you want to be grateful you didn't start a thread on Mahler 3.........

Have fun Dave !!

[EdgeleyRob]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. I may get round to compiling a list summarising the responses. In the meantime I have discovered the sonatas by Robert Fuchs - I'd never even heard of this composer before, and Martinu's 3rd sonata - http://open.spotify.com/track/7A9RGXyvjZTzxk0IrEe0Fm as well as reaffirming my liking for Dohnanyi's sonata. I also continue to be impressed by Mendelssohn - http://open.spotify.com/track/4LMdorhQA3OWh2PhCscJ12

It's going to take me a while to try out all or even most of the suggestions to date.

I listen to the Mendelssohn Cello Sonatas a lot,they are fantastic,in fact I listen to a lot of Mendelssohn a lot.

[Dave2002]

well you want to be grateful you didn't start a thread on Mahler 3.........

Have fun Dave !!

Webern's sonata seems to have the merit of brevity - http://open.spotify.com/track/5n2xzyqs2Tqx6B4fV98LIJ

Performances appear to last uner 3 minutes, or even 2!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Webern's sonata seems to have the merit of brevity - http://open.spotify.com/track/5n2xzyqs2Tqx6B4fV98LIJ

Performances appear to last uner 3 minutes, or even 2!

The clue is in the title, here, Dave - it isn't "Sonata", but "Three Little Pieces" - 2mins 20secs in total in the SONY/CBS recording with Piatogorsky and Rosen. Marvellous pieces

[Dave2002]

The clue is in the title, here, Dave - it isn't "Sonata", but "Three Little Pieces" - 2mins 20secs in total in the SONY/CBS recording with Piatogorsky and Rosen. Marvellous pieces

Sorry, no! You have the wrong track. The sonata is I think the one below the last of the 3 pieces in that listing. It's just set that way beacause Spotify doesn't show all the tracks.

However tracks 4-6 are the little pieces, also by Webern. Thanks for highlighting these. Probably can listen to all these Webern finds in under 15 minutes.

[Roehre]

Webern's sonata seems to have the merit of brevity - http://open.spotify.com/track/5n2xzyqs2Tqx6B4fV98LIJ

Performances appear to last uner 3 minutes, or even 2!

Webern first planned to compose a cello sonata. This work was abandoned after completing the first movement. The three little pieces immediately followed and were published by Webern, as his opus 11. The sonata's presumptive 1st mvt was posthumously published in 1970 under the title of sonata(M.202).
All Webern's composing for cello and piano is concentrated in 1914.

[Richard Barrett]

With a duo, the two instruments share equally the musical argument and neither assumes a dominant role. With a sonata, the explicated instrument will lead, and the second or implied instrument takes a supporting subordinate role.

So what about JS Bach's sonatas for violin/flute/viola da gamba and harpsichord where the two instruments are clearly playing "duos" in your sense... did Bach mistitle these? Or the late cello sonatas by Beethoven, especially the last movement of op.102/2? My first point is that "sonata" is a conventional classification which really says nothing about the relationship between the instruments. My second is that you may think you know what "the explicated instrument" is, but the titlepage of the actual published music may tell a different story, for example Beethoven's op.102 is entitled (in the first edition of 1817) "Deux Sonates pour Pianoforte et Violoncelle", or many pieces from the late 18th century (eg. Mozart) now called "violin sonatas" which were originally called "sonatas for harpsichord or pianoforte with violin accompaniment" or something similar. My third point therefore is that generic titles seem in reality to be by no means as clearly defined as one might like them to be or imagine that they are.