Schnittke: Cello Sonata No. 1

For her debut recording for Brilliant Classics, young Dutch cellist Amber Docters van Leeuwen has chosen a wildly varying programme: starting off in the classical yet highly personal and original style of the late Beethoven cello sonatas, she moves to that other classic for the cello, the Debussy sonata.

Then she enters the unsettling world of Alfred Schnittke, whose eclectic and highly dramatic first cello sonata was written in 1978. She ends her journey with Flavours by Eef van Breen, written for Amber, an out of the box extravaganza in Jazz style, bitter, sweet, salty and spicy.

Amber Docters van Leeuwen took her tuition with Dmitri Ferschtman in Amsterdam, then continued at the Manhattan School of Music, where she graduated with honours. Her repertoire and concert programmes combine the classical with the experimental, and she regularly partners with musicians like Bobby McFerrin, Jef Neve and Gabriel Rios. She was winner of several international competitions, notably the first Amsterdam Cello Biennnale in 2008.

Friedrich Kleinhapl writes: “Musical programmes never come about by chance, but sometimes despite the best planning one may still be surprised by the effect created by a particular combination of pieces. This happened to us when we played Schnittke’s Cello Sonata No.1 and Schubert’s “Arpeggione” Sonata in this order in a concert. We were struck by the influence the two works had on one another – Schnittke on Schubert, but also working backwards, Schubert on Schnittke.” You can explore this for yourself on this CD from Ars Produktion, originally released in February 2007.