Both Chopin and Alkan succeeded in fostering an equal partnership between cello and piano despite the virtuosity of their keyboard writing - something that even Rachmaninov never quite pulled off in his own Cello Sonata, which often sounds as if a migrant piano concerto is drowning out of a lone cellist doodling away in the background.' I don't go along with Mr. Even fewer have managed steadfastly to maintain a place in our current concert repertoire.

Some of these have already vanished from the active catalogues.īooklet annotator Kenneth Hamilton cites, 'There are relatively few nineteenth-century cello sontas. Several others have emerged over the years, including Moray Welsh and Ronald Smith, Henkel and Sermet, Bertrand and Amoyel, Schwarz and Klaas and Chiffoleau and Gardon. This new Hyperion disc is not the first recording of the Alkan. The Chopin Cello Sonata is certainly more well known than Alkan's sonata and has seen many more recordings of the work than the Alkan sonata. Since Raymond Lewenthal and Ronald Smith's pioneering recordings of Alkan, I must admit we have come a long way in the recordings department regarding Alkan's music. Alkan remains one of the most unheard or unrecorded composers of the high Romantic period from a crop of composers that included Liszt, Chopin, Schumann and their ilk.

Finally, this doctoral essay does not intend to make an ethnomusicological study of the Brazilian culture, its ultimate purpose is to demonstrate how the understanding of the Brazilian sources might be helpful in shaping the interpretation of the piece.Apparently, Alkan sells. These materials, which are available in facsimile, shed important light on Villa-Lobos's creative approach, as well as on the composition process of the work. Concerning the genesis of the piece, we discuss Villa-Lobos's sketches and manuscripts, currently owned by the Villa-Lobos Museum in Rio de Janeiro. Moreover, we discuss some of the implications of trying to absorb vernacular material into the rarified genre of the concerto. We consider, in particular, the influence of the guitar in Villa-Lobos's writing as well as the use of rhythmic patterns derived from Brazilian folk instruments, such as the berimbau and pandeiro. Some of these elements are obvious at the surface of the music but others are hidden in the texture. In terms of the finished score, we discuss Villa-Lobos's use of Brazilian folk materials, such as idiomatic themes, harmony, rhythm, texture, form, and instrumental color. This latter aspect of the study might unveil what compelled him to write such a piece. In order to understand Villa-Lobos's use of vernacular elements in the Concerto, this study traces his background, musical style in general, and his particular affection to the cello. Although Villa-Lobos does not directly quote any folk themes, the music sounds definitively Brazilian: folk-like elements and dance rhythms permeate the score. By understanding the composer's inspirational sources we might enlighten any performance of the concerto. It shows how these components infuse the finished score and how they appeared in the compositional process. This doctoral essay studies the Brazilian elements in Villa-Lobos's Cello Concerto No.

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