Cello Sonata (Rachmaninoff)

Sergei Rachmaninoff's Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19 was completed in November 1901 and published a year later.

Rachmaninoff regarded the role of the piano as not just an accompaniment but equal to the cello. Most of the themes are introduced by the piano, while they are embellished and expanded in the cello's part.

Premiere

Rachmaninoff dedicated the work to Anatoliy Brandukov, who gave the first performance in Moscow with the composer at the piano, on 2 December 1901. Rachmaninoff seems to have made some last-minute alterations after the premiere, as he wrote the date "12 December 1901" on the score.

Structure

As typical of sonatas in the Romantic period, it has four movements:

1. Lento – Allegro moderato (G minor)
2. Allegro scherzando (C minor)
3. Andante (E-flat major)
4. Allegro mosso (G major)

The work takes approximately 35 minutes to perform.

Notable recordings

• 1956 Daniil Shafran, Yakov Flier
• 1956 Zara Nelsova, Arthur Balsam
• 1958 Mstislav Rostropovich, Alexander Dedyukhin (Repeat in the 1st movement is omitted)
• 1967 Paul Tortelier, Aldo Ciccolini
• 1984 Lynn Harrell, Vladimir Ashkenazy (Repeat in the 1st movement is omitted)
• 1990 Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax
• 1994 Truls Mørk, Jean-Yves Thibaudet
• 2002 Steven Isserlis, Stephen Hough
• 2004 Natalia Gutman, Eliso Virsaladze
• 2005 Mischa Maisky, Sergio Tiempo
• 2006 Gautier Capuçon, Gabriela Montero
• 2006 Alexander Kniazev, Nikolai Lugansky
• 2007 Alexander Ivashkin, Rustem Hayroudinoff
• 2008 David Geringas, Ian Fountain
• 2012 Yuki Ito, Sofya Gulyak (Complete Rachmaninov Cello Works)
• 2012 Steven Doane, Barry Snyder
• 2012 Sol Gabetta, Olga Kern
• 2013 Julian Steckel, Paul Rivinius
• 2021 Pablo Ferrández, Denis Kozhukhin
• 2022 Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov

Arrangement

• Arcadi Volodos transcribed the Andante of the work for piano solo and recorded it on Sony Classical.

References

External links

• Cello Sonata, Op. 19: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project