Unsung Romantic-Era Cello Sonatas

[edurban]

"...Has anyone heard, performed, recorded, even recently played Alfred Turner's cello sonata (published by Schmidt in 1888)?..."

Yes, I have a copy of the old A D Turner around here somewhere, and we even had a couple of playthroughs a number of years ago.  Very dry, if I remember, competently written, but without even a scrap of good melody.  That was a number of years ago, of course, but in my ex's search for good unplayed cello sonatas we rarely found something that interested neither of us, as was the case with this piece.  I seem to remember backing Nicode's sonata, but she went with Sterndale Bennett (even though, oddly, all three movements are in the same key...)

David

[Lionel Harrsion]

Léon Boëllmann's Cello Sonata in A minor op 40 is, IMHO, a masterpiece.  I think Boëllmann still counts as 'unsung' given that some of his best works don't seem to be available in modern recordings, for example, the Symphony in F (op 24) and the Symphonic Variations for Cello and Orchestra (op 23).

[Alan Howe]

I thoroughly agree, Lionel. There is a wonderful CD on Hyperion coupled with Godard's Cello Sonata...
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA66888

[Lionel Harrsion]

I thoroughly agree, Lionel. There is a wonderful CD on Hyperion coupled with Godard's Cello Sonata...
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA66888

Thanks very much for that steer, Alan.  From the clips on Hyperion's site, the Godard Sonata sounds a more serious-minded piece than I'd have expected.

[Peter1953]

A very fine Cello Sonata is the one in C Major op. 15 by Albert Dietrich.
For audio examples see here

[eschiss1]

I think Nicode wrote at least two sonatas, maybe three?

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, Dietrich's Sonata is well worth exploring and one, at least, of Nicodé's Cello Sonatas (the Second) has been recorded. Another strong piece.

[edurban]

Thanks, Mark.  Yes, it seems that No.2 was the Nicode we tried out.  Great piece.  It never ceases to amaze that cellists, (who complain that they have nothing to play,) overlook pieces like this.  Thanks for the link, it was good to hear it again, even in snippets.

David

[britishcomposer]

Here is a Cello Sonata by Casimir von Paszthory (1886-1966). He was Hungarian but spent most of his life in Austria and later in Germany.
I like his orchestral songs very much, impressive late romantic stuff, quite unlike Strauss who somehow dominated that kind of repertoire.

I don't know whether this should be placed in the downloads section or not. I put it here because it hasn't been uploaded by me but by the performers themselves.

http://allendorf.homepage.t-online.de/musik/duo/paszthory_data/paszthory_sonate.htm?foo=0.7708644063792188

[Callipygian]

Let me add some female composers! I can heartily recommend works for the cello by Henriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952) and Jeanne-Louise Farrenc-Dumont (1804-1875). Their cello sonatas are published as "Works for Cello and Piano by Women Composers" with Iris van Eck, cello and Arielle Vernède, piano (Eroica Classical RecordiJDT3302 DDD). Both Bosmans and Farrenc are getting increasingly more attention, but for Bosmans, it mostly concentrates on her songs and for Farrenc on her symphonic works and her nonet and piano trio. These cello works are definitely a nice addition!

 

[eschiss1]

or in Farrenc's case, also in her at least twice (or 2-and-change-times, I think?...)-recorded piano quintets (which are also the best works I've heard by her, so far).

[Callipygian]

@ eschiss1: you're right, forgot about those. I looked around and it appears the only Farrenc cd I have in my collection is actually one with both piano quintets 

[jerfilm]

Scouring the American horizon, I don't find many Romantic era cello sonatas that we don't have already (and darned few of those, too)  but:

Boyle, George F.  (1886-1948)  Cello Sonata
Huss, Henry Holden  (1862-1953  Cello Sonata

Not much.......

Jerry

[vandermolen]

A vote from me for Miakovsky's Cello Sonata No 2 - one of his finest chamber works (actually my favourite).

[eschiss1]

 Also there's the opus 59 (1928) of David Stanley Smith (not Romantic-era but given what I know of the composer's music, more or less Romantic in style.) (There's Turner's already mentioned, which I admit I only knew of because the AP Schmidt-published score was at IMSLP... - I think Foote's cello sonata has been reconstructed and recorded, not sure, may be thinking of his concerto.) There's Abraham Wolf Lilienthal (1859-1928)'s sonata opus 40 published in 1921 which may count...

There's a number of other unrecorded(?) cello sonatas that at least look interesting to me (from other countries ) - Gustav Lazarus' op.56 published by Aibl in 1901, for instance.
Posting this before my browser crashes again (F.L. Ritter- no manuscript sonata- I should have edited that out. Manuscript cello concerto -yes.

And more or less seconding vandermolen - though there are a few others I about equally would not be without by Myaskovsky (Myask.'s string quartets 1 and 13 high on that list, at least as played by the Leningrad Taneyev Quartet and in the case of quartet 13, also in an excellent recent performance by the Kopelman Quartet broadcast over BBC3 and - judging from the timings, then a different performance by the same group (the BBC performance has 7:15 for the opening movement for example, the Nimbus recording 7:58- the timings of the other three movements are almost identical, however) - released on CD.)