The sound exile that Beethoven was forced to endure due to his deafness paradoxically resulted in a stylistic transformation in his music, characterized by great depth, beauty, and spiritual transcendence. Despite having been composed in 1815 (12 years before his death), the two Op.102 sonatas for cello and piano belong stylistically to this last creative period of Beethoven. His musical language shows a clear blend of the formal elements of the past with the eccentricities and whims of profound maturity and spirituality of the giant from Bonn. They were written for Joseph Lincke, cellist of the Rasoumovsky Quartet and later the Schuppanzigh Quartet, and published in 1817, dedicated to Countess Marie von Erdody, a friend and benefactor of the composer. The sonata in C major Op.102 No.1, perhaps the most lyrical of the five, instead of adhering to the traditional patterns of the classical sonata, looks back to the structure of the Baroque sonata da chiesa, whose format is 4 movements in the slow-fast-slow-fast order, although in the work they are structured in a way in which the slow movements act as introductions to the allegros. While in the allegros Beethoven respects the classical sonata form, the slow movements tend to be in somewhat more abstract forms, thus justifying the label of “Free Sonata” that the composer himself gave it. Fueron escritas para Joseph Lincke, violonchelista del Cuarteto Rasoumovsky y posteriormente del Cuarteto Schuppanzigh, y publicadas en 1817, con dedicatoria a la condesa Marie von Erdody, amiga y benefactora del compositor. La sonata en do mayor Op. 102 No. 1, quizás la más lírica de las cinco, más que ceñirse a los patrones tradicionales de la sonata clásica, mira hacia atrás a la estructura de la sonata da chiesa barroca, cuyo formato es el de 4 movimientos en el orden lento-rápido-lento-rápido, aunque en la obra se encuentran estructurados de una forma en la cual los movimientos lentos actúan como introducciones de los allegros. Mientras que en los allegros Beethoven respeta la clásica forma sonata, los movimientos lentos tienden a estar en formas un poco más abstractas, justificando así el calificativo de “Sonata libre"  ue el mismo compositor le dio.

©German Marcano 2024

The string quartet medium proved to be one of Beethoven’s ideal genres to convey his musical thought. This particular combination of instruments offered the possibility of the integration of symphonic and soloistic elements into an ensemble that, because of its size and versatility, could be conceived as intimate. As the string quartet progressed through the hands of Haydn and Mozart, the genre became more homogeneous as part writing and its expressive capabilities were intensified further. Beethoven’s contributions to the String quartet literature mark the culmination of the classical period and take the originally 18th century ensemble into another dimension that was soon taken on by later composers.

The Quartet in Eb Op 74, written in 1809, belongs to what has been called the middle period in Beethoven’s compositional output. It was dedicated to Prince von Lobkowitz, the patron to whom he dedicated his Op. 18 quartets. It is popularly known as the “Harp” Quartet (a name not given by Beethoven) because of its distinctive pizzicato theme in the first movement. This pizzicato idea is perhaps the most important innovation of this work, since up to that time this kind of articulation was mostly reserved for accompanying roles, especially in the bass line. A simple series of ascending arpeggios gain a totally different meaning when scored in alternating pizzicatti between two instruments, accompanied by constant figurations played with the bow.

The work begins with a slow and meditative introduction that sets certain tonal ambiguity which is resolved at the arrival of the first Allegro. Written in classical Sonata Form, the Allegro is high spirited and brilliant in conception and instrumentation, providing an almost equal technical challenge to all of the four parts. The pizzicato theme serves as melody, harmony and development cell, throughout the course of the movement, especially in the coda. The second movement brings back the intimacy of the introduction with a cantabile melody that glows over a warm mezza voce accompaniment. It is written in a Rondo form, but the main theme is treated in very different ways every time is recapitulated. A relentless scherzo follows the slow movement with an almost perpetual drive which is intensified in the trio section, a presstissimo episode introduced by an impetuous cello line. The movement follows the pattern of Beethoven’s middle period scherzos (ABABA). At the last appearance of the scherzo section Beethoven asks for quieter dynamics, a great contrast that leads into a connecting coda between the last two movements. The final movement is a set of variations whose theme also seems to be in a form of variation. Only by the second variation do we hear a definite melody, which is presented, not in the first violin as expected, but in the viola. This movement presents a very homogeneous type of part writing, with variations featuring all the instruments in leading melodic roles. After the last variation Beethoven wraps up the work with a delightful coda which somehow preserves the variation format, and that gradually intensifies towards the end with a relentless accelerando.

©German Marcano 2024

One of the most important figures in the history of cello repertoire was Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia, generous patron of the arts and an enthusiastic cellist. During the eleven years of his reign King Friedrich promoted the performance of music at the Postdam Palace in Berlin, and devoted at least two hours a day to chamber music, even when he went on war campaigns. As a cellist the King engaged the service of important virtuosos of the time, like the Duport brothers and Carlo Graziani, and encouraged composers to write pieces in which the cello took leading melodic roles. It was for him that Haydn wrote his Op. 50 string quartets, Mozart his last three quartets and Boccherini some of his cello quintets. In 1795 Beethoven made his Viennese debut as a pianist, and it was so successful that a year later he was invited to give concerts in Prague, Dresden and Berlin. During his stay in Berlin Beethoven met both the King, who greatly admired the composer’s talent, and the King’s first court cellist and superintendent at the Royal Chamber Music, the French virtuoso Jean Pierre Duport. Knowing the musical offerings that Haydn and Mozart had made to the King, Beethoven, an innovator by nature, came up with the idea of writing two sonatas for cello and piano, a combination that up to that time was unheard of. Since the technical level of the King on the cello was limited, Beethoven collaborated with Duport, an experienced player who by that time had toured Europe and was a well-known virtuoso. The two Sonatas Op. 5 were premiered at the Palace in 1796 and have since then become a cornerstone of the cello repertoire. Friedrich Wilhelm rewarded Beethoven with a very special gold snuff box filled with louis d’or, which prompted the composer to dedicate the two sonatas to the King when they were published a year later. Perhaps if the circumstances had been different the two Sonatas Op. 5 would probably bear a dedication to Jean Pierre Duport instead.

©German Marcano 2024

Brahms completed his first violin Sonata Op. 78 during the summer of 1879. From the beginning the Sonata found popularity and became a favorite among Brahms’s compositions. Almost one hundred years later, in 1974, the Austrian pianist and musicologist Gottfried Marcus found an edition of the Op. 78 Sonata arranged for the cello and published in 1897 by Simrock, Brahms’s editing house. Since the name of Brahms does not appear on this edition a controversy has risen about the authenticity of the transcription. Marcus argues that it is well documented that Brahms did not like his name to appear in editions of transcriptions of his own works. He also states that the work is listed as a Brahms original in various bibliographical sources. The cellist and musicologist Igor Markevich supports this theory by adding that Brahms probably wrote this transcription for Robert Hausmann, the cellist for whom he composed the Cello Sonata Op. 99 and the Double Concerto. On the other hand Georges Bozarth, Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, has come up with the theory that this work was not transcribed by Brahms but by Paul Klengel, who in the 1890’s was employed by Simrock to prepare for publication a number of transcriptions from Brahms’s originals. Paul Klengel was the brother of Julius Klengel, the great virtuoso and cello teacher, and it is thought that this arrangement was intended for him. Whether an original or not, the Sonata suits the cello very well in register and expressive qualities and is gradually becoming part of the standard repertoire of the instrument. The cello arrangement differs from the original violin version in a number of aspects and contains various alterations in both instrumental parts regarding tonality (the cello transcription was written in D major as opposed to G major in the original), registers and part writing.

The unaccompanied cello suite has not been a well-favored genre by composers. Since the magnificent six suites by JS Bach, written around 1720, no other composer attempted the genre until the beginning of the 20th century. The reasons for this were more musical than instrumental. The general style of the 18th century music and its expanding harmonic palette did not allow compositions for fewer than two voices or instruments. With the rise of instrumental virtuosity the concerto and sonata proved to be the ideal media to show the capabilities of the cello, leaving the cadenza as the only moment to show solo playing. These cadenzas were very rarely written and did not have a link with the earlier pieces by Bach.

During the 19th century the demands for harmonic and instrumental color increased, and the compositions for large orchestra and ensembles became more popular. The unaccompanied writing was again contrary to the main musical ideas of the time, and it was reduced to cadenzas, and moments inside large ensemble compositions. While most of Bach’s compositions were rescued from the past by composers like Mendelssohn, the suites for cello were used by cellists as teaching material, ignoring its true musical value. It was towards the end of the nineteenth century that the Catalonian cellist Pablo Casals started to perform these suites and to uncover their real musical and historical value.

The rediscovery of the Bach’s suites by Casals, together with the developments and experimentation going on at the time, created a new opportunity for the solo cello composition. Some composers of certain Neo-Bachian tendencies started to write pieces for solo cello (Max Reger’s 3 Suites of 1915, and Hindemith’s Solo Sonata of 1922). The Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly wrote a sonata for solo cello Op. 8 in 1915, which was more about his search on folk music than a study of Bach’s procedures.

The rise of instrumental virtuosity and the successful career of some cellists around the world were other aspects that directly influenced the composition of solo pieces for the cello in the 20th century. In particular the Soviet cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich is perhaps the most important cellist of this century, having more than 60 compositions written for him by some of the most notable composers of the century: Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Penderewsky, Lutowslawski, and Britten among them.

This collaboration between composer and performer has also been an increasing force in the development of music in the 20th century. Although collaborations have been made since baroque times, it is in this century, due in part to the growth of the recording industry, that they have become a major vehicle of composition. The process of collaboration goes further into the recording studio, where the composer is either performing with the dedicatee, or producing.

The relation between Rotropovich and Britten led to collaborations in the concert platform, composition and recordings. The works written by Britten for Rostropovich can be considered the most important contribution by one composer to the cello repertoire in the 20th century.

On the night of the September 21st 1960 Britten attended the British premiere of Shostakovich’s first cello concerto Op. 107 in London. Britten, an admirer of the older Russian composer since his youth, was asked by Shostakovich himself to join him in his box at the Royal Festival Hall. They had never met before. As well as the new Russian work, the program of the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, included the “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” by Britten. The soloist of the Concerto and dedicatee of the work was the 33-year old cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

Britten was a composer who received a lot of encouragement from listening to great performers. He had not produced a major chamber work since his second string quartet from 1945. The technical virtuosity of Rostropovich, combined with his artistic presence and magnetic personality attracted the attention of the English composer. “The most extraordinary cello playing (he had) ever heard” was the inspiration that Britten needed to return to ensemble writing. When they were introduced by Shostakovich after the concert, the decision of musical collaboration was made.

The next day Britten met Rostropovich to tell him of his desire to write a sonata for cello and piano on the condition that it would be premiered by them at the Aldeburgh Festival in England during the summer. This was the beginning of a fertile relationship between the two musicians, a relation that resulted in one of the major collaborations in the history of music, producing five large-scale works for the cello literature. (Britten also wrote at Rostropovich’s request cadenzas for 3 the Haydn C major cello concerto and a piece for cello solo for Paul Sacher birthday celebration).

After having written the “Sonata for cello and piano” (1961) and one of his major orchestral works, the “Cello Symphony” (1963) Britten had acquired a firm grasp on writing for the cello. As well as dealing with the technical instrumental difficulties of writing for the instrument, Britten paints a rather personal portrait of the dedicatee.

Although the idea for the composition of this piece had probably come to Britten while listening to Rostropovich playing Bach’s fifth cello suite at the 1961 Aldeburgh Festival, a compromise was made by Britten after a funny episode that involved both artists. When Rostropovich knew he was going to meet friends of Britten who belonged to the Royalty, he prepared to bow to them in a special Russian way: a leap into the air, a twirl and then down on one knee. Horrified at the embarrassment that this could make for him, Britten begged Rostropovich to promise him that he would not do it. On the way to this meeting they stopped for gas near a small restaurant where Rostropovich took a menu and made Britten sign a contract : “In exchange for one bow, I, Benjamin Britten promise to write for Slava (Rostropovich’s nickname) an Unaccompanied Suite for cello. Signed Benjamin Britten1

This long-awaited instrumental work proved to be a large-scale virtuoso piece with a masterful conception of the medium. Writing for a solo instrument was, however, a challenge that Britten had never approached before. His strong criticism of his contemporaries left him no alternative but to look to the cello suites of J.S. Bach for reference and inspiration. This difficulty in the genre was mentioned by the composer in a letter that he sent to Pears: “I’ve been madly low and depressed-you being away mostly I expect, but worried about my work [the cello Suite] which seems so bad always. I must get a better composer somehowbut how-but how?2

The “Suite for cello Op. 72”, the third of the compositions written for Rostropovich, was written during November and December of 1964, and was first performed by the dedicatee on June 27th, 1965, at the Aldeburgh Festival. Six months later Rostropovich gave the first performance in the United States.

Although the influence of Bach is easily traced just by looking at the Fugue, it is not so much the forms used, but the actual cello writing that Britten took from Bach’s suites. Bach’s particular device for handling various voices by integrating them into one musical line with very few chords was studied carefully by Britten to the extent of including this technique in almost all the movements.

The structural plan of the Suite resembles the six-movement pattern of Bach’s, but Britten divides the work into three parts separated by lyric episodes, which he calls Cantos, a device that creates proportion and melodic cohesion in the overall piece:

Canto primo Canto secondo Canto terzo Fuga Serenata Bordone Lamento Marcia Motto perpetuo e Canto Quarto

Not quite a “song cycle without words,” as it has been defined by an author3, the structural plan resembles that of Mussorgski’s “Pictures at an exhibition”, where the continuous return of the Promenade keeps the structure together. This similarity was, nevertheless, never actually stated by Britten.

In spite of the atonal quality of the piece, it could be said that the suite is built around the tonal center of G major, emphasized not only by the frequent use of the open G string, but also by the juxtaposition of two notes, G and F#, at the beginning and at the end of the piece. The use of this tonal center in the cello provides the opportunity for much open sonority, an idea that Bach had already explored in the first Cello Suite. It is important, however, to note that most of the movements have different key signatures, and some of them present more than one.

The resonant texture of the canto punctuates structure and establishes sounds, intervals and certain melodic cells from which the other movements are developed. Its lyricism and tension relies not so much in the cantabile quality, but in the use of chorale-like textures, with the special sonorities given by the use of fourths, sevenths and ninths.

In spite of their similarity, the Cantos have very different musical contents that give a special flow to the piece: the first Canto is open and optimistic, the second is relaxed and meditative, the third id tense and mysterious and the fourth emerges as a triumphal figure from the Moto Perpetuo.

The Fugue that follows the Canto Primo is light in character, and is written around the tonal center of C major. It is the most clearly tonally-orientated of the movements, with clear references to C major, Eb Major, E major and Ab Major. The fugue contains three different episodes: a fugal exposition, a melodic development under a D pedal (basis of the eight movement Bordone), and a fast passage with the use of bariolage (a Baroque technique based on continuous string crossing). The part writing implies two voices, although three are perceptible at certain points.

The conflict established in the Fuga between the E and the Eb, is used by Britten as the main element of the Lamento. In this lyrical movement the melodic unfolding of the solo line creates instability by a frequent descent to the same note, E, after each phrase. The influence from Shostakovich late style can be seen here, especially in the use of intervallic expansion, repetitive phrasing and general atmosphere. The dramatic tension of this movement is remarkable, especially since it is written as one solo line, with only implied harmony. The last descent of the melody leads not to an E but to a bottom C from which the second canto emerges.

The Canto Secondo is shorter and meditative. Written in a darker register than the first Canto, this episode acts as a link between the Lamento and the Serenata.

As a pianist Britten had accompanied Rostropovich in performances of the Debussy Cello Sonata in various occasions (they made a recording of it in 1961). In the program that Debussy suggested for this piece (Pierrot angry with the moon) he includes a Serenade, in which the cello try to imitates the sounds of the guitar. In the Cello Suite by Britten this influence from Debussy is clearly seen in his own Serenata, a pizzicato movement in the manner of the Spanish guitar. Unstable in tonality, this movement introduces alternated left hand pizzicato as an effective rhythmic element. Other less common effects like pizzicato glissando and legato in pizzicato (left hand articulation) give special coloristic sonorities.

The next movement, Marcia, explores other cello sonorities using harmonics and different bow effects. Written in an ABA form, this movement uses three different elements which are gradually integrated together: 1) the use of partial harmonics imitating a natural trumpet, 2) the snare drum rhythm on open strings fifths with the bouncing of the wood of the bow, and 3) the stable march rhythm with intervals of fourths, sevenths and ninths. A legato and arpeggiated figure gives a more cantabile and intense contrast in the trio section.

This light movement antecedes one of the darkest episodes of the piece, the Canto Terzo, an intense movement of mysterious nature with many chromatic displacements. With the same principle of sonority as the previous examples, this third canto is more tonally ambiguous. The choral-like pattern leads to a climax from which a gradual descent to an open D pedal prepares the atmosphere for the next movement, Bordone, Italian term for Drone.

The Bordone is a very static movement in which the note D (open or stopped) acts as a pedal when various figurations are played above and below it. The skillful writing by Britten allows the execution of passages in the whole range of the instrument while keeping the pedal D sound. The composer experiments here with colors (left hand pizzicato and con sordina) and rhythms (quick, dance). The second part of the movement introduces a melody similar in rhythm and character to the main theme of the first movement of Elgar’s Cello Concerto.

The next movement, the Moto Perpetuo, is the most brilliant and technically demanding of the work. It emerges from the D drone in rapid repetitive semitone figurations that move in patterns of two or four sixteenth notes. The highly complex direction of the movement leads to the final statement of the canto, which emerges from the texture as the Purcell’s tune appears in the final fugue of Britten’s “Young Persons’s guide to the Orchestra”. The Canto Quarto, in the same key and form of the Canto Primo, emphasizes even more the G-F# relationship, an interval of a minor second with which the piece ends.

If there is an element that persisted in composition during this century we have to refer to experimentation. This experimentation led composers to innovate by creating new methods, by combining past and present, by looking for new musical sources, thus creating in this century the most diverse in style in the history of music. The Suite for Cello Op. 72 is a work where all this experimentation has crystallized in the mature and cohesive style of one of this century’s great masters of composition.

Britten’s musical style is a product of the combination of four distinctive elements: 1) His heritage of 19th and 20th century traditional English music, 2) The strict study of the baroque and classical masters, 3) The influence of the twelve tone music of Schoenberg and Berg, and 4) his inclination taste toward vocal music. The mixture of these four elements created a versatile style that allowed for interaction between tonal and atonal structures, traditional and new forms, in a very expressive musical content. These are probably the most important features of his musical style, and indeed, of the Cello Suite.

The Cello Suite Op. 72 also represents a revival of an older genre, which, due to musical reasons of style, was only possible during the 20th century. The innovations in sonority and effects and the technical challenge that this piece offers to the performer represent the standard of 20th Cello playing and specially that of Rostropovich, to whom all cellists are indebted for his effort in expanding the cello repertoire.

©German Marcano 2024

The Cuban composer Leo Brower is one of Latin America’s most active musicians. A trained guitarist, Brower studied music with his father in Havana, completing his academic training at Juilliard School of Music and at Hartford University. Brower has a busy concert agenda both as a guitarist and as a conductor of chamber orchestras in Havana and Spain. He teachess regularly at major Guitar Festivals around the world, where he is invited not only as a performer and pedagogue but also as a major contributor of the literature for the instrument. His guitar works are widely performed, and have been recorded by such artists as Narciso Yepez and John Williams.

Being a guitarist it is not surprising that Brower turned his attention to the solo cello, an instrument that shares similarities in register and sound with those of the guitar. Trying to emulate the sounds of his own instrument Brower wrote the Cello Sonata in Havana in 1960, right after he finished his studies in the United States. Brower’s writing for the cello is lyrical and idiomatic, with frequent use of chords in simultaneous and arpegiated fashion. The extended pizzicatti passages of the second movement sound as though they had been extracted from a guitar work, and the quadruple stop chords at the beginning of the fourth movement resembles the style of guitar playing in popular music. The musical style combines the traditional four-movement sonata format with intense atonal structures that tend to move around a defined tonal center.

Apart from the already mentioned influence of the guitar in the musical flow of the work, another popular element that can be identified in this composition is the use of the Cuban “Danzón”. This dance can be heard as a dominant rhythmic device during the course of the fourth movement.

Brower revised this work in 1997, adding new sections and repetitions with elaborated figurations on previous materials.

©German Marcano 2024

After Bach’s magnificent six suites for unaccompanied cello of 1720, very little was written for this genre in the next two hundred years. The complex harmonic and textural qualities of the music from the 18th and 19th centuries found unaccompanied compositions inadequate because of its limitations in polyphony and volume. The highly developed implied contrapuntal style of Bach’s unaccompanied works had little impact on the development of the new musical styles, resulting in the disappearance of solo compositions until the early 20th century. In spite of Mendelssohn’s efforts to rescue the music of J.S Bach in the 19th century, the solo compositions by the baroque master remained almost unknown to most musicians. They were occasionally performed in distorted versions with piano accompaniment, some of them written by such distinguished musicians as Robert Schumann and Julius Klengel, who fail to understand the completeness of Bach’s writing. It was the Catalonian cellist Pablo Casals who, early in the 20th century, recognized the value of Bach’s cello suites and started to perform them in their original form. Casals’s rediscovery of Bach’s cello works not only established these compositions as milestones of the cello repertoire, but also marked the revival of the unaccompanied cello as an independent and significant musical genre. Since then, the unaccompanied cello literature has grown enormously, cultivated by almost every major composer from every corner of the globe. Together with Casals, Cassado represents the highest achievement of the Spanish cello school from the early half of the 20th century. His exceptional talent led him to a unique career, sharing the stage with important figures as Rubinstein, Menuhin, Huberman, Szigetti and Oistrakh. After his death a major international competition was created to honor his name, an event that has taken place every two years in Florence, Italy since 1965. One of the most important influences in Cassados’ career was his contact with Casals, with whom he studied at an early age for six years. Casal’s love for Bach’s music made a mark on the younger cellist who wrote compositions and transcriptions emulating the style of the great baroque masters. Cassado’s most important contribution to the cello was his compositional output, ranging from original pieces for cello, including solo works, a concerto and numerous transcriptions and pieces in the style of famous composers. The Air and Variations from the Harpsichord Suite No. 5 by G.F. Handel, most commonly known as the “Harmonious Blacksmith”, is one of the most popular pieces from the baroque keyboard literature. Cassado freely transcribed this movement, in a style that closely resembles the viola da gamba writing of the 17th century. Instead of using Bach’s unaccompanied monophonic writing to convey the polyphonic aspect of the work, Cassado’s writing is virtuosic in nature, combining double, triple and quadruple stop passages with melodies that flow in the middle and low registers of the instrument. In spite of its technical demands on the performer, the most challenging aspect of the work lies on the conveyance of the stylistic elements of the baroque.

©German Marcano 2024

There is a parallelism between the careers of the Viennese violinist Fritz Kreisler and the Catalan cellist Gaspar Cassadó. Both were contemporaries, prominent performers on their instruments, and among the last representatives of the performer-composer tradition. The compositions of both virtuosos are obligatory repertoire for instrumentalists today, and most of them consist of pieces of great charm and success with audiences. In the specific case of Cassadó, his work includes, in addition to a collection of transcriptions for cello with piano and cello with orchestra, some original works among which the popular suite for solo cello and some orchestral works stand out.

For some reason, Cassadó did not claim authorship of some of his compositions, which caused controversy at the musicological level in his day. In the case of the Toccata, one of his best-known pieces, Cassadó attributes its authorship to the Italian Renaissance composer and organist Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), arguing that the arrangement for cello and piano is a work he discovered in the archives of the Conservatory of Barcelona, where his father had been chapel master for several years. In 1978, Walter Schenkman, piano professor at the University of Northern Colorado, published an article refuting Cassadó's theory with compelling evidence. The harmonic and idiomatic style of the ensemble betrays the composer, leaving no doubt about the authorship of the work. Setting aside the controversy, we find that the Toccata is a fresh and brilliantly written piece for the ensemble, of great charm and acceptance, which has even led some musicians to arrange it for bands and symphony orchestras. It may be a personal justification for writing music in a traditional style at a time when artistic trends were moving towards atonality and serialism.

©German Marcano 2024

In 1915, Claude Debussy (1862-1918) began working on the composition of six sonatas for various instruments, a project that greatly challenged his reputation as a reactionary to traditional artistic trends. Returning to the Sonata genre, a musical form established by the German tradition with structural patterns consolidated by its great exponents, was interpreted by contemporary critics as a weakness and a decline in his artistic creativity. However, time has given these sonatas (he could only finish three of the six projected) their due value, allowing us to see a mature composer reflecting artistically on the legacy of his great predecessors.

The sonata for cello and piano has been labeled as a programmatic piece by some authors, specifically referring to the subtitle suggested by Debussy himself, "Pierrot angry with the moon." While the composer himself rejected a strict program in the work, it presents some features characteristic of Pierrot's character, such as the ascending arpeggio in the cello at the beginning of the work simulating guitar tuning, the evasion of rhythmic, metric, and harmonic regularity in the second movement, trying to illustrate the constant emotional distortion of the character, among some others.

Debussy himself described the proportions of the sonata as "almost classical in form": the prologue in ternary form ABA, the serenade acts as the scherzo, and the finale as a dance movement. However, the composer placed on the first page of the edition "Claude Debussy, French musician," a notation that more than telling us his nationality emphasizes his solution to the paradigm of the German sonata and his contribution to the legacy left in this same genre by French baroque musicians.

©German Marcano 2024

The Venezuelan composer Paul Desenne was born in Caracas in 1959. The son of an international marriage (his father comes from France and his mother from Wisconsin), Desenne grew up in Venezuela and developed a very strong tie to the folk musical traditions that this country possesses. Desenne completed his cello studies with Philliphe Muller at the Paris Conservatoire, where he obtained the “Premier Prix” with felicitations from the jury, presided by the great French cellist Pierre Fournier. In 1986 Desenne returned to Venezuela where he has developed an important career as a performer, teacher and composer, with this last activity becoming more predominant today.

A very versatile artist, Desenne performs regularly as soloist with the principal orchestras in Venezuela, as well as making guests appearances with important folk music ensembles. As a composer, Desenne has had works premiered by important ensembles and orchestras around the world. Last December the Julliard orchestra premiered one of his works in New York. Some of his compositions have been recorded and released by Dorian, the prestigious recording label.

The two pieces for cellos that will be performed tonight are part of an open book of pieces written for this combination. The works are part of an experimental process of the composer in which the cello is used in a less traditional fashion. Rather than using the customary baritone singing role of the instrument, Desenne transforms the sounds of the cello as he tried to reproduce musical genres which are usually played with traditional wind and percussion instruments from the Caribbean, Orinoco and Amazon ethnic cultures. The experimentation does not only limit itself to the acoustical qualities of the music, but also to the rhythmic aspects of it. Desenne recreates the rhythmic structures of the traditional folk genres by alternating the individual parts into an organic web of continuos rhythmic motion, a common procedure in the performance of music from these particular cultures.

The selection of the cello as a medium for this experiment seems to be, according to the composer, the ideal one. Desenne comments on three factors that made the cello suitable for this experiment: the length of the strings, which brings power to the harmonics and pizzicati; the effectiveness and volume of the different bowing colors; and the very wide range of the instrument, covering those of the human voice and most instruments of any ethnic origin. The size of the ensemble was The size of the ensemble was determined by the fact that many structures of the original ethnic material used can be broken down into interactions between three parts. The methods of sound production (harmonics and pizzicatti) and the highly original use of those sonorities throughout the pieces represent a reaction against traditional procedures, and at the same time contain, in my opinion, a hidden speculation on how would the instrument would be used in other cultures if there wasn’t a historical reference.

The source that inspired both pieces is the “quitiplás”, a percussion instrument of Afro- Venezuelan origin. The quitiplás is basically a collection of bamboo sections which produce a sound when they are struck on a hard floor, stone, wood, or against each other.

The first piece “Quitiglass”, aims to reproduce the rhythmic aspects of the “quitiplas” performances, but suggesting glass or even a glass-pipe organ, instead of bamboo. The piece is built in its entirety on natural string harmonics. The peculiar harmonic setting of this modal piece comes from the tuning of the three cellos, which have to bring the two lower strings down a semitone (Kodaly scordatura). The relatively frozen harmonic spectrum implies a predominance of the rhythmical and textural discourse. The piece is structured in four sections. It starts with a slow prelude of canonic nature, which the composer calls “Gothic”, for it conveys a mystical atmosphere related to the vocal music of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Following an accelerando section, the piece evolves into the quitiglass, a more rhythmically active section, in compound triple meter, with interweaving ostinatos. After the lengthy second section a third episode begins, a binary dance inspired on the Colombian “Cumbia”. As the “Cumbia procession”, as the composer calls it, disappears in the distance, the fourth section “codetta” comes as a final comment which recapitulates the almost metaphysical atmosphere of the prelude.

The second piece aims to recreate the real sound of the quitiplas by means of persisting and continuos pizzicatti in two of the cello parts, hence its name “pizziquitiplás”. The muted first cello plays harmonics imitating the sea conch trumpet often present in Afro- Venezuelan drumming practices. The structure could be divided into two distinctive sections. The first one is fast, lively and very rhythmical, like the music used in festive ceremonies of Afro-Venezuelan origin. The second section is slower and meditative, or as the composer describes it, “a slow ritual dance in which the nightly sounds of the marsh frogs blends with the reflection of stars in the puddles, after a tropical rainstorm”.

The minimalistic style of Desenne’s music is far from being a mere transcription or transposition of the folk elements of the South American cultures. It has evolved in such a way thatthose elements become almost imaginary references within a framework of an organized compositional process. The almost hypnotic effect created by the highly intricate rhythmic atmospheres and predominant sonorities, transport us to the world of natural sounds of the South American rainforest.

©German Marcano 2024

To speak of the Cantata Criolla is to refer to one of the most important works of symphonic choral literature in Latin America. Written by the Venezuelan composer Antonio Estévez (1916-1988), this brilliant work is a musical adaptation of the famous poem "Florentino y el diablo" written by the Venezuelan poet, essayist, and lawyer, Alberto Arvelo Torrealba (1905-1971). It narrates the encounter between Florentino, a strong singer from the Venezuelan plains, and the devil, who invites him to a vocal duel upon learning that as a singer, Florentino had no rival in the art of improvised singing.

Native to the Venezuelan plains (Calabozo-Edo Guárico), Estévez was deeply familiar with the stories and mysteries of the region, the literature and the important musical genres present in Venezuelan plains music (joropo and tonada), with the melodic and rhythmic patterns of accompanying instruments (harp and maracas). However, far from simply transposing the sounds of the Venezuelan plains to the orchestra and choir, Estévez constructs a musical monument in which he combines his Venezuelan roots with contemporary universal language, drawing from the symbolism of medieval Gregorian chant, the sonic exuberance of orchestra and choir from early 20th-century European music, and the stylistic atonality of his era, giving special life to the extraordinary poem.

Antonio Estévez, along with other important Venezuelan composers, was an integral part of the composition studio established by Maestro Vicente Emilio Sojo in Caracas in the 1930s. Sojo encouraged his students to create universal music inspired by the folk roots of traditional Venezuelan music. His musical legacy and that of this generation of composers have been important foundations for the Venezuelan musical movement that continues to this day.

After graduating as a composer in 1945, Estévez traveled to the United States to further his studies at Columbia University and Tanglewood, Massachusetts, studying under masters such as Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein (the latter being two years younger than Estévez). His career as a composer continued to solidify, and in 1947, he began composing the Cantata Criolla, inspired by Alberto Arvelo Torrealba's original poem of 1941 (the poet made several revisions to the original poem in 1950 and 1957). The Cantata Criolla was completed in 1954 and premiered the same year in Caracas, conducted by the composer himself, with two soloists who were distinguished professionals in other fields: Florentino was sung by the renowned Venezuelan athlete Teo Capriles, while the role of the devil was portrayed by the great Antonio Lauro, better known for his immense contribution to the guitar repertoire. Its success with the audience immediately established the Cantata Criolla as one of the most important symphonic choral works on the continent.

The beginning of the work ("The Challenge") suggests the plains landscape at dusk, Florentino's horse trotting, leading to the narrator (the choir), who, in the best tradition of the Baroque oratorio, declaims with precision and literary beauty the moments before the encounter between the two rivals. The dark and mysterious music fully describes the strange events leading up to the devil's appearance. The devil challenges Florentino to an improvised singing duel in Santa Inés, to which Florentino later agrees with a beautiful and heartfelt tonada. The second part ("The Contest") begins with one of the most impressive musicalizations of a torrential downpour, reminiscent of the best symphonic poems of Richard Strauss, followed by the choral narrative conveying the excitement towards the encounter of the two titans. The improvised singing duel takes place, a refined and witty contest in which Florentino defeats the devil by dawn. The grandeur of the finale is achieved over the texts "Holy Trinity" declaimed by the choir and accompanied by the entire orchestral ensemble, undoubtedly the climactic moment of the work.

The Cantata Criolla is today a symbol of Venezuelan musical identity. A masterpiece that, in addition to its interesting musical content, confronts us with the eternal dilemma of good versus evil, and conveys to us the hope of a better tomorrow and the reconciliation of humanity.

©German Marcano 2024

The Five Pieces in Folk Style, Op. 102, were the first compositions written specifically for the cello by Robert Schumann (1810-1856). Composed in 1849, a year of tremendous productivity for the composer though financially unstable, rather than pursuing a paraphrase of popular styles of the time, it attempts to reproduce, in the delicate and mature hand of the composer, a series of musical miniatures accessible to the ear of the masses, with the aim of immediate economic gain. The use of "popular style" can be observed in three main aspects: genre, structure, and rhythm.

Rather than belonging to the tradition of instrumental duos, these pieces follow a form more akin to that of popular songs, close to the genre of the German lied: while the cello (with very few exceptions) is responsible for exposing the melodic material, the piano sets the character of each piece, with few melodic interventions. Structurally, the pieces, with the exception of the first, follow the ternary pattern ABA, a simple form of easy auditory recognition. To further facilitate their simplicity, Schumann chooses to make the reprises almost exactly the same as their expositions, differing only in the use of a final coda. As for the rhythmic aspect, we can say that it tends to be simple and repetitive, thus seasoning this musical quest for accessibility to the inexperienced listener, which he called "popular style".

©German Marcano 2024

After the Second World War, the communist government of Czechoslovakia, formerly Bohemia, confiscated properties and assets belonging to the Austrian aristocracy. The substantial collections found in the confiscated castles were stored in trunks and boxes and sent to the National Museum in Prague.

Starting in 1958, numerous musicologists undertook the task of reviewing these collections, thus discovering works that were believed to have been lost for over 150 years. The most important find of these collections was made in 1961 by the head of the museum's music department, the Czech musicologist Oldrich Pulkert, who found a set of parts of a concerto for cello and orchestra written by Joseph Haydn. The work received immediate authentication from the Haydn Institute in Cologne, which recognized it as the lost concerto in C major written around 1765. The work was premiered in May 1962 by cellist Milos Sadlo with the Czech Radio Orchestra conducted by Charles Mckerras and published a year later, becoming since then one of the most popular concertos for the instrument, performed and recorded today by the most renowned performers.

The idiomatic writing for the cello in this concerto leads us to conclude that Haydn interacted with Joseph Weigl, cellist of the court orchestra of Prince Esterhazy, to whom the ownership of the parts found by Pulkert in 1961 was attributed.

The concerto in C major for cello and orchestra is one of Haydn's best works of youth, composed around 1765. The work follows the typical structural patterns of Haydn's concertos: 2 fast movements with one slow one interspersed. The first movement (Moderato) is martial in character but lyrical and charming at the same time, the second (Adagio) is poetic and dramatic, and the third (Allegro molto) is light and full of virtuosic passages that are a challenge for any cellist.

©German Marcano 2024

Symphony No. 45, known as "Farewell Symphony," was composed by Haydn in 1772. Its minor key, unconventional for the time, is a product of the strong influence the German literary movement known as "Sturm und Drang" had on the composer, characterized by its dramaticism and stormy fatalism. It was written for his patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy, under very particular circumstances that occurred that year at the prince's summer palace.

In the year 1772, Prince Nikolaus's annual summer season extended longer than expected, causing discomfort among his subjects, especially among the court musicians, whose wives had also been restricted from staying in the palace, with Haydn and his 1st violinist Tomasini being the only exceptions to this rule. Unable to make a public protest, the orchestra musicians approached Haydn to present the problem, a situation the composer immediately understood and promised to find a solution for.

The composer's ever-present creativity led him to compose a symphony that, in addition to containing the typical elements of this musical genre, contains a clear message in the last section of the 4th movement, a surprising adagio that made the prince understand the problem and order the immediate return of the court to Eisenstadt.

The symphony is written in 4 movements: a dramatic 1st movement filled with the spirit of Sturm und Drang, followed by a contrasting slow movement not only in tempo but also in sonority and character. The 3rd movement is a minuet in the difficult key of Fsharp major with the characteristic Austrian dance spirit of the composer. The symphony concludes with a dramatic allegro that, after displaying the classical structure of a Haydnesque 4th symphonic movement, is interrupted by an unexpected Adagio in which the composer, with the artistic subtlety that characterizes him, asks Prince Esterhazy for a well-deserved vacation for his musicians.

©German Marcano 2024

Julius Kengel (1859-1933) represented one of the most important cello schools in Germany during the late 19th century. Together with Hugo Becker, Klengel continued the great German tradition of cello playing established by Dotzauer, Kummer and Grutzmacher. His performing career spanned over 50 years as a principal player of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, combined with extensive solo and chamber presentations. His tours often presented him with the opportunity to interact with important musicians of the time, like Brahms and Joachin. Max Reger, who performed with Klengel on several occasions, dedicated his Cello Sonata Op. 116 and his first Cello Suite to him. In spite of his great performing achievements, Klengel is most remembered amongs cellists today for his pedagogical treatises and compositions. His concertos and solo works, although limited in musical depth, are an invaluable tool for the learning of instrumental technique. As a teacher, Klengel left some outstanding students, of whom Emmanuel Feuermann and William Pleeth are perhaps the most remembered today.

It is known that Klengel edited and often performed the cello and gamba works of J.S. Bach, and it is probable that those works provided the source of inspiration for the composition of his Suite for two cellos Op.22. The overall plan of the work follows a Baroque pattern, introducing three movements from the traditional Baroque suite (Praeludium, Gavotte and Sarabande), and three other movements which have distinctive characteristic and contrapuntal techniques from the older style. Instrumentally, the Suite for two cellos makes enormous technical demands on both players. In order to make up for the absence of other instrumental parts, Klengel makes frequent use of double stops and fully exploits the register of the instrument. The virtuoso quality of the work, however, is obscured by the stylistic demands of the music, which although written in the Romantic era, preserves the flavor of the late 17th century style.

©German Marcano 2024

La Sonata Op. 8 para violonchelo solo de Kodály es una composición que pocas obras pueden igualar en términos de desafíos musicales y técnicos. Se destaca como una de las obras más únicas y ambiciosas de Kodály, caracterizada por un enfoque altamente orquestado de la escritura para violonchelo que utiliza técnicas imaginativas como múltiples dobles cuerdas, pizzicato con la mano izquierda, tonos extremadamente altos y otros efectos instrumentales. Al requerir que las dos cuerdas más graves del violonchelo estén afinadas medio tono más bajo de lo normal, Kodály altera de manera muy efectiva el registro y los timbres colorísticos del instrumento. Su lenguaje musical sigue el apego característico de Kodály por la música húngara, presentando melodías y texturas de estilo folclórico, tanto en estilos rapsódicos como de danza.

©German Marcano 2024

Alberto Ginastera (1916-83) is perhaps, together with Heitor Villalobos, among the best known the composers of Latin America in the 20th century. His works have enjoyed popularity among soloists and orchestras internationally and have become a landmark of Latin American concert music. During his lifetime Ginastera accepted commissions from important cultural institutions such as the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation, Lincoln Center and The Opera Society of Washington D.C. Among the performers who have premiered his works some of the most noteworthy are the Julliard Quartet, Ruggiero Ricci, Leonard Bernstein and Mstislav Rostropovich. Ginastera’s musical language evolved from a style rooted on Argentinean folk elements (Ballets Panambi (1935) and “Estancia”(1941)), into a more subjective use of folksong material combined with contemporary techniques.

The Cello Sonata Op. 49, written in 1979 was commissioned by the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (Inter-American Music Council). It was written for his wife, Argentinean cellist Aurora Natola, who had the exclusive performing rights until the work was published in 1993. It was first performed in December 1979 at the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center by cellist Aurora Natola and pianist Samuel Sanders.

The four-movement work synthesizes some of the main features of Ginastera’s musical style shown since his very early works: the persistent rhythmic drive of South American folk dances (first and fourth movements), the solitude inspired by the vastness of the Argentinean landscape (the lyrical second movement), the mysterious and magical world of the lost aboriginal America, expressed in a series of hallucinatory sound effects of the third movement, and the presence of the guitar, the most popular musical instrument in the music of Latin America. Structurally the Cello Sonata does not really deviate so much from the traditional pattern of the classical sonata. The composer divides the first movement into four well-defined parts to which he refers as Prima Parte, Collegamento (link),Seconda Parte and Coda. The presentation of the thematic material follows a pattern of Classical Sonata form in which the Prima Parte and Collegamento introduce primary and secondary melodic material respectively, which are then recapitulated in the Coda.

The Seconda Parte, which acts as the development section of the structure, introduces a series of sound effects in which the sound of guitars and rhythms of Malambo dances are perceived. The slow second movement is also divided into four parts: a cadenza for solo cello, cadenza for solo piano, Svilupo for both instruments and Epilog. In this movement, written with a very free use of serialism, a sudden tonal moment occurs at the end of the piano cadenza in which the cello plays a raising melody where Ginastera writes the word “amor” (love). This is a quotation from his third string quartet (which contains a soprano part with these lyrics), but more of a musical device, is a sign of affection to the dedicatee. The Presto mormoroso is a hallucinating scherzo that retrogrades on itself at midpoint. It is a movement of pure color in which Ginastera displays his imagination with uses of glisandi, ponticello sounds, trill glisandi, gettato bowing and cross rhythms. The last movement is the most brilliant and rhythmically accessible of the work. In this impetuous finale Ginastera makes use of the “Karnavalito”, a rhythm of Inca origin presented in the melodic material of both piano and cello. Written in a kind of Rondo pattern, the movement introduces a very lyrical contrasting section above the persistent rhythmic drive, before making the final statement of the main theme.

©German Marcano 2024

The cellist Maurice Gendron (1920-1990) was a protagonist, along with Paul Tortelier, Andre Navarra, and Pierre Fournier, of what is known as the golden age of the cello in France. A student of the celebrated Gerard Hekking, he made his debut in London in 1945 with Benjamin Britten on piano, beginning a brilliant career that took him to the most important stages worldwide. He premiered Prokofiev's first cello concerto and formed significant ensembles with figures such as Yehudi Menuhin. In addition to his extraordinary discographic and audiovisual legacy, Gendron left important transcriptions for cello and cadenzas for the most important concertos in the repertoire.

The Spanish Dance No. 1 from Manuel de Falla's opera "La vida breve" (1905) is best known for the magnificent transcription made by Fritz Kreisler for the violin, skillfully combining instrumental virtuosity with the singular character of Spanish music. Gendron made the adaptation for cello and piano with even more satisfying results, turning it into a display of virtuosity and color for both instruments.

©German Marcano 2024

The Suite for Cello and Piano by Modesta Bor was composed in Moscow in 1961 for the Spanish cellist Luis García Renart, whom the composer met while they were both studying at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the same city. However, its first public performance took place 25 years later at the First Festival of 20th Century Latin American Chamber Music. The work was premiered in the presence of the composer by cellist Germán Marcano and pianist Elizabeth Guerrero on July 2, 1986, in the Concert Hall of the Ateneo de Caracas.

©German Marcano 2024