Piano & Co: Mendelssohn - Cello Sonatas

“It could easily have been expanded into a symphony. In it one finds tenderness and boldness, simplicity and artistry; the contrasts are blended into a beautiful form by a skilled hand.” This is how Robert Schumann described the first three-movement cello sonata, composed in 1838, by his friend Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Even today, one could not describe the work any better. And this also applies to the second sonata from 1842, which adds a choral-like, sublime-sounding Adagio. The concert opens with Clara Schumann’s wondrous romances, which were actually intended for the violin of the dedicatee, Joseph Joachim. Amid this thoroughly Romantic program, a gift—the Latin word “Donum” in German—resounds for a virtuoso solo cellist such as Giovanni Gnocchi. The donor is one of the most significant contemporary composers, the Tyrolean Johannes Maria Staud.