J. Brahms Cello Sonata Johannes Brahms composed two cello sonatas, both of which are important works in the cello repertoire. The first Cello Sonata in E minor, Op. 38, was composed between 1862 and 1865. This sonata demonstrates Brahms' mastery of writing chamber music and his profound understanding of the cello's capabilities. The work is characterized by its rich melodies, expressive depth and intricate interplay between the cello and piano. He composed three movements in 1862 and dedicated them to his friend and patron in Vienna, Joseph Gänsbacher, a singing teacher and cellist and a man who helped Brahms become director of the civic choir. Brahms rejected the Adagio he was composing at the time (perhaps he did not destroy it, but reused it decades later in the Second Cello Sonata) and in 1865 added a fugal third movement to the first two. The resulting sonata is both sonorous and playful, progressive and deeply rooted in the music of history. The opening movement of the Sonata for Piano and Cello follows a largely conventional sonata form. The main theme obscurely inhabits the resonant lower notes of the cello register and is sometimes characterized as a theme reminiscent of otherworldly fairy tales. Both Brahms' treatment of the main thematic expositions and their later development often reveal his expansive melodic vision, while still adhering closely (but not hastily) to traditional form and maintaining a specific connection to the past: a thematic similarity to the third Contrapunctus from J.S. Bach's Art of the Fugue. The middle movement shifts key to A minor and presents an almost Baroque minuet and trio. The final movement brings the tension between past and future into sharp focus: Brahms composes a fugue for the two instruments. On the one hand, a fugue remains a distinctly historical form for a musician of his generation, and its baroque ties are reinforced by its resemblance to a motif by Bach. On the other hand, the harmonic nature of the music and the distinct difficulty of balancing the single line of the cello with three "voices" in the keyboard are all novelties. A. Pärt Spiegel im Spiegel Spiegel im Spiegel, composed in 1978, was the last work Arvo Pärt completed before leaving his native Estonia. The work, which came just two years after the inaugural "tintinnabulary" works, is one of the most carefully distilled examples of Pärt's new compositional aesthetic, and its extreme calmness stands in stark contrast to the tension and frustration that characterized his music of a decade earlier. To fully appreciate the beauty of Spiegel im Spiegel, we must go back in time a few years. In the late 1960s, Pärt found himself in an artistic dilemma. Having had enough of the brash, neoclassical style of his first published works (see, for example, the Partita), and equally frustrated by the predominant serialist style of the time, he composed several works that did not seem to reflect his own style, but rather commented on the inadequacy of and incompatibility between the available choices. Pro et Contra and the Second Symphony, both from 1968, were characterized by crude, jarring stylistic combinations and reflected the urgency of Pärt's crisis. Shortly after their composition, Pärt withdrew from public composing altogether, and in the following years he composed only two works. This period was one of intense reflection and study (especially of medieval and Renaissance music), and by the time Pärt resurfaced in the late 1970s he had developed an entirely new approach to composing, which became known as the "tintinnabulary" style. The beauty of the tintinnabulum is not the construction of an emotional trajectory, but rather the creation of an introspective atmosphere made of pure sonority. W. Lenearts "Memento" Memento for piccolo (or flute) and piano takes you on a journey through time and space - with a mystical and hypnotic musical atmosphere, various dream images and memories from the past, present and even the future are interwoven. The work consists of five successive movements that imperceptibly merge into one another and are constructed according to a mirror structure. The fast middle section symbolizes the mirror itself in which impressions from different times seem to reflect themselves. C. Franck Violin Sonata The marriage of violinist Eugène Ysaÿe and Louise Bourdeau in 1886 inspired Franck's Lonely Violin Sonata. Like Franck, Ysaÿe (1858-1931) was born in Liege. A composer himself, he became a champion of the latest French music. (In addition to Franck's Sonata, Chausson's Concerto and Poème and Debussy's String Quartet are dedicated to him.) Although he was 64 years old in 1886, Franck was still best known as an organist - at the important church St. Clotilde and the opulent public art palace the Trocadéro, and as professor of organ at the Conservatoire. The recognition he gained in the last years of his life, and increasingly thereafter, was due in large part to the ardent missionary work of supporters such as Ysaÿe. The violinist often played Franck's Sonata on his extensive tours, telling his listeners that he played it "con amore" because it was a wedding present. Franck originally planned to play the opening movement slowly and contemplatively, but Ysaÿe convinced him that it worked best at a faster tempo, so Franck marked it as Allegretto, albeit with the qualifier "ben moderato." The movement juxtaposes two themes rather than developing them. The second movement is a dramatic scherzo in D minor, opening as a turbulent piano toccata, followed by a rousing, offbeat violin line over it. There are lyrical or pensive interludes, working as trio parts, but the turbulent toccata always returns and ends with a final swing to triumph in D minor. The tuneful chromaticism that Franck adopted from Wagner is evident in the almost Tristanesque piano introduction in the third movement, a Recitativo-Fantasia. This introduction is also a reference to the opening of the Sonata, and much of this free movement is devoted to reflection on the previous movements. As the movement's title clearly indicates, there is a distinct personality split halfway through, when the improvisatory Recitativo gives way to the more penetrating Fantasia, which picks up some of the rumbling power of the second movement. The violin has a newly configured dramatic theme in this movement, which will return in the finale. That finale begins in a state of pure lyrical grace, with a lovely optimistic theme played in canon, with the violin following the piano a measure later. This is developed against the stormy energies of the second movement in a section that goes from five flats to six sharps and back again. The opening theme of the movement creeps back into A major with all its original sweetness - and again in canon - before swelling to exuberant joy.