EDGAR AND JÉRÉMIE MOREAU

One of the first chamber works to cast the cello as soloist rather than mere supplier of bass-line accompaniment, Beethoven’s Second Cello Sonata was written on a 1786 visit to the Berlin court of King Friedrich Wilhelm II, for virtuoso court cellist Jean-Pierre Duport to perform with Beethoven himself. A darkly dramatic slow introduction, playing to the cello’s lyricism, leads to a resolute Allegro molto più tosto making much of Beethoven’s own virtuosity; the finale is then a playful rondo. Debussy’s classically-proportioned Cello Sonata of 1915 – his first chamber work since the String Quartet of 1893 – opens on a dark and heartfelt Prologue, before an elfin Sérénade and a triumphant Finale. Grieg’s 1883 Cello Sonata shares its A minor key with his Piano Concerto, echoes of which are heard in the concluding Allegro. Preceding that are a dramatic Allegro agitato and a lyrical Andante molto tranquillo.