Caltabiano: Sonata for Solo Cello

Sonata for Solo Cello

Duration:

17'

Year:

1982

Catalog No.:

144-40133

	Opening (2' 25" -- 2.3 MB)		download

	Beginning of the Second Mvt. (1' 38" --1.6 MB)		download

Sonata for Solo Cello was commissioned by the Tcherepnin Society in honor of the fifth anniversary of the death of Alexander Tcherepnin.

The first movement, "Transformations," begins with a dramatic declamando. This allegro section is interrupted by a short, lyrical fragment that ornaments a single note. The movement progresses, juxtaposing these two sets of materials, and the transformations begin: Each allegro section becomes shorter and uses fewer pitches, and each andante section is longer and assumes the pitches left out by the previous allegro. By the end of the movement, the allegro (now using only seven pitches) is reduced to a brief arpeggio that interrupts a fully developed version of the first lyrical fragment. The andante section resumes and the final transformation leads to a quiet reference to a Tcherepnin pentatonic theme.

The second movement, "Variations," opens with a slow sustained passage of harmonics comprising the theme. This material is an extended and chromaticized version of the final notes of the first movement. In each of the ensuing continuous and overlapping variations, the two opposing tendencies of ornamentation and thinning occur simultaneously. Fewer and fewer of the original notes of the theme appear, and those that remain are more and more highly ornamented as the movement becomes more energetic. By the final variation, only the 12 most important notes of the theme (the pitch material from the first movement) are present, allowing extensive ornamentation and quotes from the opening of the work.

Sonata for Solo Cello was premiered by Joel Krosnick on January 22, 1983, at the Juilliard Festival of Contemporary Music in New York.

-- R.C.

In its first movement, entitled "Transformations," an explosively passionate allegro declamando is interrupted briefly by a lyrical andante fragment. Soon, [an] audible structural process develops between these two dramatic extremes: the allegro sections become shorter - by the movement's end a mere fragment - while the andante passages lengthen and develop into full-fledged thematic material. The Sonata's second movement, "Variations," employs a free technique in which the theme is simultaneously ornamented by the addition of new pitches, and "thinned out" by the removal of original ones. By the second movement's end, the musical material of the opening declamando has returned, producing a satisfyingly organic motivic unity for the overall Sonata.
-- Music and Musicians [London]

The Sonata for Solo Cello is a structurally satisfying work written in the highly chromatic idiom for which Caltabiano is known.... The Sonata is in two movements, "Transformations" and "Variations," each based upon the contrast of two distinctly different tempos and moods.... The Sonata for Solo Cello is a serious work that challenges both performer and audience; it deserves frequent programming.
-- Notes


		Sonata for Solo Cello, performed by Fred Sherry, is available on CRI CD 835 on a collection of Caltabiano instrumental music. The CD can be purchased in any retail store, or on line at Amazon.com.