St Petersburg, Concert Hall

Rachmaninoff. Franck. Shostakovich


PERFORMERS:
Alexander Kniazev (cello)
Nikolai Lugansky (piano)


PROGRAMME:
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Cello and Piano Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19

César Franck
Cello and Piano Sonata in A Major, FWV 8

Dmitry Shostakovich
Cello and Piano Sonata in D Minor, Op. 40


The chamber ensemble genre in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s legacy includes just a few works, among which the repertoire includes two piano trios that date from the composer’s early period and the Piano and Cello Sonata.
The time the sonata was composed coincides with the period of Rachmaninoff’s artistic rise following a crisis. In the chronology of Rachmaninoff’s works it sits next to Piano Concerto No 2. In these two works – the first performances of which took place just a month apart – we can easily recognise shared intonations; the sonata also resembles the concerto because of the composer’s relationship with the piano, fully-developed and virtuoso in the concerto style, the piano taking the most important role. It is not by chance that in the manuscript score and publications released during the composer’s lifetime the sequence of the instruments is given specifically as “for piano and cello” and not the typical reverse order.
The sonata has four movements: the tense and dynamic Allegro moderato with its slow introduction, the tense scherzo-tarantella, the Andante, which pianist Konstantin Igumnov considered a pinnacle of Rachmaninoff’s lyricism and, finally, the bright and festive finale, the peaceful conclusion of which cedes to a lyrical coda with the return of the main theme of the first movement in Major key.
The sonata was dedicated to its first performer – the outstanding cellist Anatoly Brandukov, a friend of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (who dedicated his Pezzo capriccioso to him as well).

César Franck, a Belgian of German blood who became one of the most famous citizens of Paris, was a major figure in French musical life in the latter half of the 19th century. Franck opened up genres of instrumental music that had hitherto remained in France which was ruled by opera, on the periphery of the attention of composers. His Violin Sonata forms part of the triad of chamber ensembles produced by the composer in the last decade of his life along with a piano quintet and string quartet. All three works are acclaimed as dazzling examples of French chamber music.
Franck dedicated the score as a wedding present to its first performer Eugène Ysaÿe, a famous Belgian violinist. Franck’s sonata was not just one of Ysaÿe’s favourite works, performed until the end of his career, but also entered the repertoires of numerous celebrated violinists.
The four-part form of the cycle, which begins with a measured slow movement, brings to mind the structure of Bach’s sonatas. Turning to recitative (in the third movement) and polyphonic forms (the main theme of the finale is a canon) also makes us think of the principles of the Baroque era, though – of course – this sonata belongs to the late-Romantic style, by no means least because of the rich chromatic harmonies. The first musical idea of the sonata is in the colourful Major-key ninth chord, the sound of which Franck literally is in love with, not hastening to settle it in a steady assonance – he creates a link with Debussy’s yet-to-be-written searches in harmony.
In the sonata we have a vivid example of the principle of “cyclical themes” by which the cycle is linked by one motif that appears in every movement. Franck also made use of this principle in his symphony music. Here this element is provided by the intonation of the rising tercet that appears at the very start of the first part of the piano and then with the violin.
The violin, which stands apart throughout the sonata, was later transposed for various instruments including the flute. The arrangement for cello produced by French cellist Jules Delsart was approved by Franck himself. The natural sound of the sonata when performed on the cello allows us to see it as an equal partner to the original.

Dmitry Shostakovich’s compositions occupy a prominent position in cellists’ repertoires: the composer produced two concerti, first performed by Mstislav Rostropovich, expressive monologues in his Fourteenth and Fifteenth Symphonies and major roles in chamber works. Shostakovich’s first experience of using this instrument came with his Sonata for Cello and Piano, dedicated to the talented cellist Viktor Kubatsky, a pupil of Anatoly Brandukov.
In connection with the Cello Sonata, Shostakovich himself spoke about his search for pure musical language and simplicity of expression. In it we can indeed see the tendency to reject the futuristic features of his earlier works. Shostakovich turns to classical forms (even going so far as to repeat the exposition of the first movement – a typical feature of the sonata form of the Viennese classics); in the intonation structure of the sonata there is a powerfully diatonic beginning. Unexpectedly the coda resounds in sharp contrast in the first movement – a prolonged Largo based on material of the main part. In the second movement, a scherzo, we hear Shostakovich’s typically grotesque humour (the characteristic play with flageolets), while the third is filled with meditative expression. The finale is an ironic rondo in the manner of a perpetuum mobile that demands virtuoso skill from both musicians.
© Mariinsky Theatre, 2015/Vladimir Khavrov

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