St Petersburg, Concert Hall

Dmitry Ganenko recital (cello)


Stanislav Solovyov (piano)

Dmitry Ganenko (biography)


PROGRAMME:
Luigi Boccherini
Sonata for Cello and Piano No 6 in A Major, G. 4

Johann Sebastian Bach
Prelude and Sarabande from Suite for Cello Solo No. 6 in D Major

Johannes Brahms
Sonata in F Major for Cello and Piano No 2 in F Major, Op. 99

Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Pezzo Capriccioso for cello and piano, Op. 62

Gaspar Cassadó
Suite for Solo Cello

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


In cello music almost each and every work is connected with the name of some dazzling virtuoso. One splendid example of this was the work of Mstislav Rostropovich, who enriched the cello repertoire to a staggering degree, but his case is by no means unique – the instrument’s destiny was thus from the very outset.
The thirty-six sonatas by Luigi Boccherini, now proved to have been written by him, were composed... for his own self. From childhood, Boccherini dedicated his life to the cello, and his fame as a performer and composer spread throughout Europe. The Sonata in A Major followed a collection of six sonatas published in 1772 in London. Its structure is un-classical – it opens with a lento movement. Possibly it is this unusual first movement that brought it such widespread popularity.

Flying in the face of tradition, the “hero” of Johan Sebastian Bach’s Sixth Suite was not a virtuoso performer but the instrument itself. The suite in “majestic” D Major tonality was composed for a five-stringed instrument. With this instrument, widely used in the Baroque period, it was easier to perform in higher registers and this explains why the suite was composed with such high notes and so vividly.

In the course of his life Tchaikovsky met with many wonderful cellists. These included Karl Davydov, Vasily (Wilhelm Karl Friedrich) Fitzenhagen and Anatoly Brandukov, a pupil of the latter. In August 1887 it was he for whom Pezzo capriccioso for cello and orchestra was composed. The work is not “capricious” in terms of its character (which is more elegiac) but in terms of its rather unpredictable combination of different kinds of technique, and in this sense it is simultaneously demanding and effective to perform.

Catalonian cellist Gaspar Cassadó, a pupil of the legendary Pablo Casals, developed a vast repertoire for his instrument as well as for guitar, not to mention numerous concerto transcriptions. His interest in early music was not limited to Bach – he had a firm knowledge of Frescobaldi and Couperin as well. In his one and only suite he combined the Baroque with the present, the Catalonian and the pan-European, which is reflected in the titles of the three movements: Preludio-Fantasia (a Zarabanda), Sardana, Intermezzo and Danza finale (a jota). The Suite for Solo Cello is, of course, a tribute Bach, but also to Zoltán Kodály. Cassadó quotes a fragment from his Cello Sonata (1921) in the first movement. There we can also find a quote from Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloé (1912) – Cassadó could not resist the temptation of arranging the magnificent flute solo for his favourite instrument.
Anna Bulycheva

Age category 6+

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