Sonata for Cello & Piano

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Composer’s comments:
My Sonata for Cello & Piano was originally written for the bassoon, whose lyrical qualities were (and still are) so rarely celebrated by today’s composers. And while the bassoon is not primarily associated with a naturally warm, “vocal” timbre, the cello most certainly is. In this new transcription, the featured soloist soars to new heights of elegant, melodic, and even poignant lyricism, without sacrificing any of the sprightly virtuosity of the original. The work’s three movements — I. Marziale, II. Pastorale, and III. Il Ponte di Londra — are quite different from one another in tempo and character, providing an engaging balance of stylistic variety. In the first movement, the cello sets the tone with a jovial, march-like melody, after which the piano establishes the framework of the movement with a crisply-syncopated ostinato bass. This motoric rhythmic motif is reiterated at the end of the movement, offset in the middle portion by a high-register, bell-like ostinato. In contrast, the cello’s “voice” presents elegantly sweeping and sustained melodic gestures — almost defiantly so at the beginning and end, until it finally returns to the sprightliness of the introduction. The second movement actually began life as a song for baritone and piano. Though never completed as a song, the musical intent survives in this movement’s opening and closing passages. At the center is a more flowing melody in mixed meter — a poetically simple line that at first repeats, and then becomes more varied as the underlying harmony and texture evolve and blossom in the piano part. Inspiration for the third movement arose from songs of a different kind — those sung by and for children. The tune London Bridge is Falling Down first appears in disjointed fragments, and then takes on longer, more varied and more coherent shapes, while portions of Mary Had a Little Lamb subtly emerge. In the final moments, all culminates first as a brief fughetta and then as a boisterous Scottish reel, until at last, both nursery tunes are heard, contrapuntally combined and gleefully undisguised. 

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