Unsung Romantic-Era Cello Sonatas

[Alan Howe]

Does anyone know the late Cello Sonata No.3 by Carl Reinecke? It's a passionate, often stormy work dedicated to the memory of Brahms and, IMHO, fully worthy of comparison with the latter's two great cello sonatas. Does anyone else know this superb piece - or have any other candidates for entry into the pantheon?

[alberto]

I don't know Reinecke Third Cello Sonata.
For me a candidate could be Gustav Uwe Jenner Cello Sonata in D major (1901).
It can be listened to on a very Brahms-centred  record by Divox, CDK-29106 (1993 release).

[jerfilm]

The sonata for cello and piano is one of my favorite genres ever since the first time I heard the Rachmaninoff sonata (which turned me on to chamber music......).   I have and like both the Reinecke and Jenner sonatas (along with over 200 others which making choosing favorites difficult at best).  Of the more recently released recordings, I do like Camillo Schumann's two sonatas.

Jerry

[ArturPS]

I have the cpo cd of Ries' cello sonatas and I think they are very, very beautiful. I do recommend them!

[Alan Howe]

I do also recommend the wonderful Cello Sonata by Felix Draeseke. You can hear excerpts here:
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/SESSIONID/14b4acb310a945e850299f20f7bd5e58/classic/detail/-/art/Felix-Draeseke-1835-1913-Werke-f%FCr-Cello-Klavier/hnum/1618903

[eschiss1]

The Reinecke (no.3 or maybe all 3 at that...), Draeseke, Raff and Myaskovsky (Romantic-style though late for the era) (both) - and at least one but perhaps both of the Fuchs (no longer available in either of their recordings, I think? there may be a new recording of one of them actually. no.2 also maybe a bit late in time...) - would be high on my list ... if I remember it right so would the Biarent, and some others. The combination seems to bring out good things in composers, I agree. (Haven't heard the three by Herzogenberg- on a cpo CD- I think, but I expect I will enjoy them too.)

[Balapoel]

I am very fond of chamber music (more so than orchestral or piano, typically). Cello Sonatas I've appreciated (not counting sungs like Prokofiev, etc.) include:

masterworks:
Röntgen (Bb, a, g, c, b, D, f#, d, e, c, d, a, c#, C), particularly 2, 5, and 7
Thuille (d)
Reinecke (a, D, G)
Novak (g)
Myaskovsky (D, a)
Magnard (A)
Lekeu (f)
Grechaninov (e)
Franck, Eduard (D, F)
Foerster (f, c) - I have the f minor, but not the c minor (yet)
Alkan (E)

Other good, (generally) tonal sonatas:
Zemlinsky (a)
Weinberg (C, g)
Stanford (A, d)
Schumann, Camillo (g, c)
Scharwenka, Franz (e)
Scharwenka, Phillip (g)
Rubinstein (D, G)
Ries (C, A, g, ?), I only have 2 and 3, I'm fond of 3
Reger (meh) (f, g, F, a)
Rawsthorne
Pfitzner (f#)
Moscheles (I have No. 2 in E, Op. 121, but I can'/t find reference for "No. 1")
Kodaly (op. 4)
Kabalevsky (Bb)
Ireland (g)
Hummel (A)
Hindemith (op. 11/3, E)
Herzogenberg (a, D, Eb)
Henselt (b)
Goldmark (F)
Goens (no sonatas, but lots of cello and piano miniatures)
Fuchs (d, eb)
Franck, Richard (D, eb)
Enescu (f, C)
Dohnanyi (bb)
Delius (1916)
Bridge (d)
Bowen (A)
Biarent (f#)
Berwald (Bb)
Bennett (A)
Barber (Op. 6)
Atterberg (b)

Sonatas I would like to hear
Ropartz (g, a)
Raff (op. 183)
Parry (A)
Onslow (Op. 16)
Lachner, Franz (A)
Juon (op. 4, 54)
Jongen (op. 39)
Jenner (D)
Gernsheim (d, e)
Draeseke (D)
d'Indy (D)
Brull (d)
Bortkiewicz (op. 36)
Bax (Eb, D, f#)
Bantock (b, f#)
Balfe (Ab)

[Rainolf]

One of my favourite pieces in this genre is the "Musik für Violoncello und Klavier" by Heinrich Kaminski (1886-1946), a work in three movements of 25 minutes duration, which could be called a cello sonata in all but the title. It is written in a contrapuntal, somewhat neo-Bachian idiom and makes much use of church tonality. One of Kaminski's trademarks is a very free treatment of rhythm and metre, which could be found in this work, too.

I must agree with Alan in his recommendation of Draeseke's Sonata. It's a beautiful written work, containing many long stretched melodies, typical for Draeseke's chamber music. But I like even more the two smaller pieces for cello and piano, Ballade and Barcarole, which are recorded on the AKCoburg CD. Here Draeseke shows himself as an ingenious miniaturist.

Another recommendation is the cello sonata by Ethel Smyth, an early and rather short but vigorous work by this fine chamber music composer.

[Mark Thomas]

Belapoel wrote:

Sonatas I would like to hear ... Raff (op. 183)

I'll upload it tomorrow.

[eschiss1]

I think Gernsheim's 2nd was performed, perhaps even premiered, sometime this century at a festival. I may be thinking of another chamber work in manuscript, the 2nd string quintet... I only know of 3 cello sonatas by Ries, I think, not counting arranged works; and if there's a 4th I think it's after the G minor- but I'll check the incomplete (only up to opus 169 - the flute sonata sentimentale) catalog he kept of his works to be sure. (It's at Stabikat Berlin and also (now) at IMSLP, if an incomplete Ries thematic worklist - by the composer, not Cecil Hill the more recent and comprehensive compiler- interests.)

I'd also like to hear CG Reissiger's... and... oy. Long list here too!, not necessarily all of the _best_ (though I like Reissiger somewhat better than do most of the few who've heard of him, I think ) (and then if one moves to string-only chamber works too, say... or... ) - as usual, so much that (to diverge from the first in the thread, apologies) is not of the best but gives very lasting value. (Rheinberger, to my ears, even when not at his best... I forget how his cello sonata ranks among his works, but I know few chamber works by him that aren't at least very good.)

[edurban]

I feel a little bad mentioning a cello sonata that hasn't been commercially recorded (I can't even find my tape of the only performance I know of, at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1987.)  It was published, though I know of only 2 copies, one at the L of C and one at NYPL.  This is the marvelous sonata, Op.13 (1888) of the Anglo-American Horace Wadham Nicholl (died 1922.)  It will repay anyone's effort to locate it.  The cello part is difficult, being sometimes awkwardly written for the instrument rather than virtuosic, and the musical textures are severely contrapuntal (no aimless arpeggios or alberti bass here) but the tunes are excellent and the writing is passionate.  It is probably the only cello sonata that will make you think of Meistersinger.

Best, David

[chill319]

Staying within the orbit of German high culture exemplified by Reinecke, Draeseke, and Brahms, three suggestions...

(1) Dohnanyi's sonata, op. 8, is a splendid work in the Brahmsian tradition, and easy to find. (2) As played by Gerhardt and Becker on Hyperion, I think the first two Reger sonatas (opp. 5 and 28) make fit companions for sonatas by the above-mentioned composers. (3) Though I have not seen or heard the Wilhelm Berger sonata, op. 28, if it's as good as his Piano Quartet, op. 21, it's likely to be a gem. It would be wonderful to see it on IMSLP in the near future and on disc soon thereafter.

Straying slightly from that orbit...

Two favorite, early 20th-century American works are: (1) Foote's cello sonata, op. 78, one of his finest efforts; (2) the Converse cello sonata, a robust work of high invention. Both are from 1913. Converse studied with Chadwick, who studied with Reinecke.

[eschiss1]

Also- Rubinstein's 2 sonatas; Magnard's still-Romantic-era (barely) (though rather modern sounding, to my ear) late sonata, too; and Vierne's lovely one deserve at least mention.

Has anyone heard, performed, recorded, even recently played Alfred Turner's cello sonata (published by Schmidt in 1888)?... (Or outside the USA, Nicolai v. Wilm's opus 111 of 1893? I think maybe the latter, some of his chamber music has gotten a bit of recording.)

I have heard, I think, Rozycki's sonata opus 10 (in the Strahl/Wolanin - broadcast? - recording that sometimes appears on BBC Radio 3) and some other such works (Sjogren's opus 56 too). (I see Fuchs' hard-to-acquire 2nd cello sonata is being broadcast on Italian Filodiffusione radio on Monday evening/Tuesday morning in Drobinsky's Marco Polo recording and again some hours later. Moscheles' opus 121 (2nd?) cello sonata is on an Austrian station around the same time, btw.)

[Mark Thomas]

I've uploaded Raff's contribution to the genre and there is a link to it in the "German Music Folder" in the Downloads Board.

[alberto]

No longer in the pantheon, but still in the realm of worthy (or more than worthy) music I would indicate the following sonatas,
all recorded (some now easily available: Piernè, Alfano, Sinigaglia).
-Schoeck (1957, last work, unfinished, absolutely late romantic, on Claves)
-Martucci (label "Velut luna")
-Casella (Nuova Era)
-Cilea (Nuova Era)
-Vierne (label Classic)
-Sinigaglia (Toccata)
-Pizzetti
-Alfano (Naxos)
-Piernè (Naxos)
-Boris Tchaikowsky (1957, Russian Disc)