Ravinia 2019, Issue 4, Week 8

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918) Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano in D minor Ill health and the ravages of war virtually halted Debussy’s composition, but seeking refuge in the coastal town of Pourville during the summer of 1915 renewed his musical energy. An October 6 letter to the conductor Bernardo Molinari de- tails Debussy’s compositional projects: “When I tell you that I spent nearly a year unable to write music … after that I’ve almost had to relearn it. It was like a rediscovery, and it’s seemed to me more beautiful than ever. … I haven’t written much or- chestral music, but I have finished Douze études for piano, a cello sonata, and another sonata for flute, viola, and harp in the ancient, flexible mold with none of the grandiloquence of modern so- natas. There are going to be six of them for differ- ent groups of instruments, and the last one will combine all those used in the previous five.” Debussy’s projected cycle of six sonatas was nev- er completed; he died before beginning the last three pieces. The finished compositions were for cello and piano (No. 1); flute, viola, and harp (No. 2); and violin and piano (No. 3). Accord- ing to Debussy’s original design, the remaining sonatas were scored for unusual combinations: oboe, horn, and harpsichord (No. 4); trumpet, clarinet, bassoon, and piano (No. 5); and all of the instruments plus a string bass (No. 6). The Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano gratified the composer. “It’s not for me to judge its excel- lence, but I like its proportions and its almost classical forms, in the good sense of the word.” The Prologue begins with a slow, sustained piano phrase whose rhythmic and melodic motives re- combine to form most of the thematic material of the movement. A quiet, but lively central sec- tion provides temporary contrast. An expanded version of the first theme appears at the end. The two movements that follow are performed without an intervening break. The Sérénade is characterized by a recurring repeated-note pat- tern, while the animated finale contains many features of the rondo, such as a léger et nerveux (light and nervous) refrain. JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–97) Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, op. 99 Twenty-one years separate Brahms’s two sonatas for cello and piano. His stylistic development and expansion during the intervening years partly account for their individuality. The Sonata No. 1 in E minor, op. 38 (1865), displays an essen- tially Classical temperament in its low, symmet- rical cello lines and three-movement design. By contrast, the later Sonata No. 2 in F major, op. 99, exudes a dramatic Romanticism in its harmonic boldness and high-lying melodies, as well as the breadth of its four movements. Brahms com- posed the Cello Sonata No. 2—along with the Violin Sonata No. 2 and the Piano Trio No. 3— during his summer retreat at Hofstetten on Lake Thun in 1886. Cellist Robert Hausmann joined Brahms in the first public performance in Vien- na on November 24, 1886. The Allegro vivace bursts forth with a passionate, even heroic cello theme and tremolo accompa- niment. A second, equally forceful melody does little to lessen the tension. Brahms turns to the unusual key of F-sharp major in his Adagio af- fettuoso ; this movement presents two expressive themes and occasional cello pizzicatos, an un- common effect for the composer. The Allegro passionato , although not so titled, is a scherzo in three parts. Brahms’s final movement, some- what lacking in the dramatic weight of the ear- lier movements, features a refrain-like theme heard several times throughout. GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845–1924) Élégie , op. 24 In his mid-30s, Fauré divided time profession- ally between his position as choirmaster at the Église Saint-Sulpice and freelance composition. He carved out an unexpected niche as a com- poser of chamber music with a string of popular scores published in Paris by Julien Hamelle: the Violin Sonata in A major, op. 13; Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, op. 15; Berceuse for violin/cello and piano in D major, op. 16; and an authorized transcription of the Three Romances without Words , op. 17, for violin/cello and piano. Sometime in early 1880, Fauré began drafting a sonata for cello and piano, starting with the slow movement—his typical compositional procedure. This Molto adagio was heard in the salon of his former teacher, Camille Saint-Saëns, on June 21. Three days later, Fauré reported to Hamelle: “I was very sorry you could not be at Saint-Saëns’s on Monday. My cello piece was excellently re- ceived, which greatly encourages me to go on and do the whole sonata.” Months passed, then years, with no measurable progress on the cello sonata. Finally, in 1883, Hamelle issued this single movement as the Élégie , op. 24. Fauré and cellist Jules Loëb, to whom the score is dedicated, gave the premiere at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique on December 15 that year. This music’s instant popularity is easily under- stood. Its initial cello melody in C minor (a key shared with Fauré’s recent piano quartet and Saint-Saëns’s Cello Sonata, op. 32) spins a long lament over a steady pulsation of chords. Me- lodic interest shifts to the piano’s right hand in the lyrical second theme, which the cello embel- lishes in a dramatic build-up to the return of the lament, played one octave higher. This anguished outburst almost immediately subsides as the mu- sic quiets and, eventually, slows to a conclusion. SERGE RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943) Cello Sonata in G minor, op. 19 Few creations for chamber ensemble grace Serge Rachmaninoff ’s catalog. In fact, only a smatter- ing of small-ensemble pieces arose from the whole period of Russian Romanticism encom- passing the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rachmaninoff assigned opus numbers to only four chamber works. The most substantial are the Trio élégiaque , op. 9, which was dedicated to the memory of Tchaikovsky, and the Cello Sona- ta in G minor, op. 19. A two-year stipend made possible by pianist and composer Alexander Siloti (Rachmaninoff ’s cousin) allowed Serge Claude Debussy (1913) Johannes Brahms Gabriel Fauré by John Singer Sargent (ca. 1889) RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2019 94