The following is an excerpt from Lindsay Koob’s insightful liner notes to Mendelssohn: Complete Music for Cello and Piano.
This recording contains Mendelssohn’s complete original works for these instruments [cello and piano] – though cellist Alfredo Piatti (and several others since) transcribed a number of his Songs without Words for them. It’s interesting to note that all of the works here were written for (and dedicated to) specific cellists whom he knew and worked with.
Composed in 1829 – the same year Mendelssohn revived Bach’s St. Matthew Passion – the Variations Concertantes, Op.17 were written with his brother Paul in mind. While the younger Mendelssohn followed his father into the banking business, he remained an avid and accomplished amateur cellist – and his devotion to Felix was boundless. It was Paul who, upon his brother’s death, immediately saw to the care and well-being of his widow Cécile and their children – and worked tirelessly to promote and preserve his musical legacy. From the piece’s considerable technical demands and interpretive subtleties, the composer’s high regard for his brother’s abilities is obvious.
Both instruments – beginning with the piano – trade the main theme back and forth, arching sweetly upward in a series of distinct phrases (helpful for variations) that build in lyrical intensity before falling back.
Melodic duty falls to the cello in the first variation, with delicate “pizzicato” underpinnings from the piano that soon bloom into richer textures as the cello’s voice becomes more rhapsodic. The piano takes a virtuosic lead in the next, with the cello taking a quick breather before entering at low register, only later becoming a more active participant. Then, in the third, it’s the cello’s turn to show off, skittering nimbly and negotiating tricky runs over its partner’s spare chords before dropping to a low trill beneath the piano’s melody. The piano again takes charge in the next, with contrasting mutterings from the cello before it reclaims the melody near the end. The fifth, with its sense of nobility slightly skewed by pizzicato cello and dotted rhythms, is oddly reminiscent of Beethoven. The sixth – with its gentle, yet insistent lyricism – is the perfect foil to the stormy, minor-key drama of the extended seventh – again recalling the spirit of Beethoven (a major influence at the time). The final variation ramps that drama up a notch, before a protracted episode of thematic give-and-take fades into the work’s subdued close.
Mendelssohn produced his Cello Sonata No. 1 in B-flat, Op. 45, in 1838; it’s the final work written specifically for his brother Paul. While it remains eclipsed by the weightier and more often-heard second sonata (below), the music is pure and unadulterated Mendelssohn, with its prevailing blithe spirit. And it demonstrates his wonderful penchant for elegant, yet heartfelt cello “singing” – as well as his ability to make the most of traditional forms. As in all of the works heard here, the piano is rarely relegated to a mere support role, consistently remaining the cello’s equal musical partner – no surprise, given the composer’s prowess as a pianist.
The momentarily gruff sound of the first bar or two of the opening Allegro vivace movement is again reminiscent of Beethoven (specifically his own Op. 69 cello sonata). But that quickly dissipates as the main theme unfolds in relaxed high spirits, with brief contrasting flashes of tension and drama. There’s an overall sense of exuberant momentum throughout, with fascinating interplay between the cello’s firm cantabile voice and the piano’s brilliance. The brief and choppy phrases that open the central Andante convey a sense of whimsical inquiry, touched by fleeting mystery and doubt. The prevailing mood fades as the cello shifts into a melting cantabile passage that soon reverts to elaborations on the truncated opening theme. The piano part becomes more involved, lending the theme a mildly troubled aspect as the movement ends. The finale – marked Allegro assai –reverts to thematic material that smacks of the first movement’s, but in lighter and more jovial musical language. Brief episodes of veiled menace fail to break the predominantly happy spell, and the music expires with a contented sigh.
MENDELSSOHN: COMPLETE MUSIC FOR CELLO AND PIANO
Emanuel Gruber, cello
Arnon Erez, piano
DE 3415
Variations Concertantes, Op. 17: I. Theme (Andante con moto) • II. Variation 1 • III. Variation 2 • IV. Variation 3 (Più vivace) • V. Variation 4 (Allegro con fuoco) • VI. Variation 5 (L’istesso tempo) • VII. Variation 6 (L’istesso tempo) • VIII. Variation 7 (Presto ed agitato) • IX. Variation 8 (Tempo 1) – Coda
Sonata No.1 in B-flat Major, Op. 45: I. Allegro vivace • II. Andante • III. Allegro assai
Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58: I. Allegro assai vivace • II. Allegretto scherzando • III. Adagio • IV. Molto allegro e vivace