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GARY HOFFMAN // DAVID SELIG 17
Dated January 1820, the
Variations Concertantes
in Dmajor, Op. 17, launch the series
with equal measures of melodic imagination and a balanced and well-worked
dialogue between the two protagonists. Excepting the brief
Feuillet d’Album
(1835)
written for his friend, the composer, conductor and cellist Julius Rietz (1812–1877),
Mendelssohn waited until 1838 to return to the cello and piano duo with his
Sonata
No. 1
, Op. 45; it was a fertile period for chamber music, as the series of three String
Quartets Op. 44, begun the previous year, was being completed at the same time.
As with the Variations Op. 17, the
Sonata No. 1 in B flat major
was written for Paul
Mendelssohn, the composer’s younger brother and a talented amateur cellist. The
three-part composition contrasts with the more extravert style of the
Sonata No.
2 in D major
, Op. 58, which Mendelssohn wrote from 1842 to 1843. This remarkable
score has fourmovements; the composer dedicated thework to theRussianpatron
MateuszWielhorski and premiered it alongside cellist KarlWittmann onNovember
18, 1843 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, an institution he had been directing since 1835.
Mendelssohn was an absolute master of form, from oratorio to the piano
miniature, a domain in which he excelled with a wealth of
SongsWithoutWords
. He
composed the
SongWithoutWords in D major
, Opus 109, for piano and cello in 1845.
Written for French cellist Lisa Cristiani (1827–1853), the piece concludes the output
for cello and piano by the most famous German composer of the first half of the
19th century with a lyricism and modesty characteristic of his great art.