- The Cello Sonatas.
On this recording, Cellist Steven Isserlis presents Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano, including Beethoven’s arrangement of his Horn Sonata.
The use of the accompanying fortepiano opens up a wealth of sound possibilities for these works, because they hark back to the composer’s time. In the early 1800’s.
These five Cello Sonatas span Beethoven’s early, middle, and late compositional periods, and they comprise the most important cycle of cello sonatas in the entire repertoire.
Steven Isserlis writes that the composer, ”transforms himself from confident virtuoso to supreme master of classical form, and then beyond that to a mystic exploring strange new worlds of unearthly beauty – a wondrous transfiguration.”
The performance is by Steven Isserlis (cello) and Robert Levin (fortepiano).
The works and their movements are listed below:
Ludwig van Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 5 No. 1
Ludwig van Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 5 No. 2
Ludwig van Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69
Ludwig van Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 102 No. 1
Ludwig van Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102 No. 2
Ludwig van Beethoven: Variations (12) on “See the conquering hero comes” for Cello and Piano, WoO 45 (Judas Maccabeus Variations)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Variations (12) on “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” for Cello and Piano, Op. 66
Ludwig van Beethoven: Variations (7) on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen”, for Cello and Piano, WoO 46
Ludwig van Beethoven: Horn Sonata in F major, Op. 17
I had difficulties in locating Isserlis’ videos of these sonatas, perhaps because this recording is new. Most of his recordings feature the Cello concertos. So— here is Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Allegro from Cello Concerto in A major, as performed by Mr. Isserlis:
Tags: Beethoven, Cello sonatas, Isserlis, Robert Levin, fortepiano