Starker & Sebok: Mendelssohn Cello Sonata Mercury NM LP

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Starker & Sebok: Mendelssohn Cello Sonata Mercury NM LP

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MENDELSSOHN Sonata for cello & piano No. 2 in D major, Op. 58

Mendelssohn was briefly between jobs when he wrote the second of his two cello sonatas; he was making the transition from handling musical matters for the King of Prussia to assuming the directorship of the new Leipzig Conservatory. The attendant stress of this period is hardly reflected in this sonata, which the composer wrote for his brother Paul, a cellist. The first movement, Allegro assai vivace, begins with a surging, confident melody for the cello, underpinned by a pressing piano accompaniment. The keyboard then presents its own statement of the theme, the cello now relegated to the background. The piano remains dominant during the introduction of the more lyrical but still impulsive second subject, but the cello eventually gets its turn at an extension of the tune. Unwary listeners might gather that Mendelssohn is here launching a third subject, but the cello is clearly playing the flowing outline of the melody the piano has just broached. Indeed, the instruments will be treated as equals throughout most of this sonata, and often each is allowed a virtuoso flourish. Mendelssohn develops his themes sequentially and neatly, with an almost circumspect ardor that never subordinates one instrument to the other.

The second movement, Allegretto scherzando, opens with a whimsical tune in the piano that is quickly taken up pizzicato by the cello. The melody becomes a bit more lyrical when played arco, but Mendelssohn reserves real songfulness for the second theme, which the cello sings out over a palpitating piano accompaniment. The movement continues with a repeat of the first section that turns uncharacteristically gruff before a brief reprise of the second theme, again in the cello. The instruments quietly slip away, playing fragments of both melodies.

The Adagio begins with graceful piano arpeggios that follow the chord structure of the aria "Es ist vollbracht" from Bach's St. John Passion, reflecting Mendelssohn's lifelong devotion to the music of the German Baroque master. The piano recedes into the background as the cello offers an aria of its own, which grows more ardent and recitative-like as it progresses. Before long, the cello is playing its aria over the piano's chorale-like arpeggios; at the very end, the piano offers its own treatment of the cello's theme. Cellist Coenraad Bloemendal has proposed reading this movement as "a programmatic representation of the competing religious forces that coexisted in Mendelssohn's mind" -- the "Lutheran" piano part overlapping and ultimately embracing what Bloemendal describes as the cello's "cantorial chant."

The extensive finale, Molto allegro e vivace, begins with hectic yet low-key material that recalls the composer's famous Spinning Song. All of this sonata-form movement's thematic elements are spun from the material of the first several measures. Mendelssohn does not vary or develop this material so much as use it to put the two instruments through accelerating, arduous runs, culminating in a final section that creates a dazzling effect without descending to vulgarity.

Chopin's cello sonata, Op. 65, was his last major work. Apart from the piano, the cello was the only instrument for which Chopin composed substantial amounts of music; in 1832 he had written the Grand Duo Concertant for the cellist Auguste Franchomme. In part because of the presence of the cello, and in greater part because of the formal characteristics of the piece, the composition of the cello sonata occupied Chopin for an unusually long period. He worked on it through 1845 and well into 1846, sketching and drafting as he had not done before, and at one point complaining to his sister, "I write a little and cross out a lot." Extant sketches show that Chopin did indeed discard an incredible amount of material and redrafted most of his ideas before deciding on the final form of the work. The piece was printed in Paris in 1847. Chopin and Franchomme premiered the sonata in Paris to great acclaim, in what was to be the last performance of Chopin's career.

Much of Chopin's anguish stemmed from his difficulties in the shaping the relationship between the two instruments. That he mostly composed the cello part first was perhaps at the heart of the matter, for Chopin was forced to curb his keyboard tendencies and remove himself from his natural idiom. It is no surprise that the piano part often sounds uncharacteristic of Chopin. Furthermore, because he chose to engage himself with the Germanic sonata idea, as he had in his piano sonatas, he had to set aside his predilection for ternary forms with codas and achieve contrast and develop logical structures in new and unfamiliar ways.

Chopin takes great care to distribute the material equally between the cello and piano, and he accomplishes this goal in a variety of ways. For instance, in the first group of themes in the first movement we hear passages of piano solo, piano with cello accompaniment, cello with a substantial piano counter-subject, cello with only light piano accompaniment, and counterpoint in which the two partners are equal. After the second group opens with rounded phrases for each instrument, a three-part invention involving both instruments ensues. The Germanic aspect of the movement becomes clear in Chopin's development of an integrated sonata form from a few related motives. Inversion and other transformations of motives from the first few measures occur even in the exposition. One of the cello's most important motives, a rising and falling half-step, comes not from the main theme but from prefatory material, and what seem like mere connective gestures evolve into parts of themes. It is not surprising that Chopin moves to the relative major (B flat), but what is striking is his path--a string of dominant-seventh harmonies--toward this goal. Throughout, Chopin diminishes the punctuating potential of his cadences by writing continuous melody over them, giving a sense of constant growth.

Chopin creates relationships among the four movements of the sonata through melodic references. The primary cello motive of the first movement, a rising and falling half-step, opens the lush second movement, the folksy scherzo, and the tarantella finale--further evidence that Chopin was consciously experimenting with German compositional methods. The clear divisions between cello and piano in the second movement contrast with the more integrated use of the instruments in the first movement, while the finale sounds, at times, like Mendelssohn. The end result is a unique, un-Chopinesque work.

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