Strauss, R: Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 6

“Underrated, like most of Bloch's music, they are played here with aristocratic dignity by Emmanuelle Bertrand.” The Guardian

“The enthusiastic playing of Bertrand and Amoyel captures Saint-Saëns’ characteristic youthful vigour and gleeful virtuosity.” Classic FM Magazine

The cellist Peter-Philipp Staemmler and pianist Hansjacob Staemmler are brothers and come from Thuringia. They were winners at the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb in 2009 and this is their debut CD.

Partnered by the distinguished pianism of Pavel Gililov, Maisky’s intimacy with Strauss’s and Dvorák’s pieces for cello and piano is the fruit of years of playing and loving these sublime compositions. Maisky’s masterly bowing caresses soulful tone out of his 18th century Montagnana cello. Even in thrall to violent emotion, master cellist Maisky oversees his music making from an altitude of heavenly serenity. Classic FM’s description of Maisky as “one of the world’s leading cellists” qualifies as understatement of the year!

This repertoire is entirely new to the DG catalogue and represents different facets of Mischa’s extraordinary career. These works have accompanied him all over the world and feature regularly in his concert programmes. On 10 January 2008 Mischa Maisky celebrated his 60th birthday, the start of a year that also marks the 25th anniversary of his partnership with Deutsche Grammophon.

In his youth (1881-86), Strausss left chamber music worthy of a young prodigy: his Piano Quartet was written at the very end of his early period, when he developed a keen interest in the music of Johannes Brahms. Letters to his family and his friend/composer Ludwig Thuille reveal a good knowledge of the symphonies and the quartet itself is certainly modelled on the Brahms piano quartets. Despite this pervasive influence, much originality and talent is displayed in the complexity and thorough nature of this composition. Unlike some of his other works for smaller ensembles, this work was obviously an ambitious effort at creating a serious chamber piece. The fact that he submitted it to the Berlin Composer's Guild (for which he won a prize) shows that he took some pride in this work. As late as 1921, on his American tour, he was still performing it in concerts. Though it is not often played today, it was obviously a favorite of the composer's and is particularly interesting in the context of his developing musical style. Much later, in 1940, Strauss bequeathed a final page of magic and deadly charm: the Sextet-overture to Capriccio. The juxtaposition of these two pieces illustrates the art of a post-romantic composer initially inspired by to Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms before becoming the untiring bard of feminity, of infinite subtlety in the music of his late operas.

These sonatas were all written for excellent cellists. Mendelssohn had his brother Paul in mind for his D major Sonata, although he dedicated it to the Russian amateur player and music patron Prince Mateusz Wielhorski. Piatigorsky’s freewheeling interpretation is reminiscent of Feuermann’s: he did not know that master’s recording, which was still unpublished at the time, but he may well have heard Feuermann play the work. Chopin’s G minor Sonata – one of his few chamber works and his last large-scale creation – was composed for a friend, the cello virtuoso Auguste Franchomme, with whom he gave the première in 1847. It cost Chopin an immense amount of effort, none of which shows in the finished piece. Richard Strauss’s Sonata in F major is a youthful work, dating from 1883, but the Czech cellist Hanus? Wihan, for whom Dvor?ák wrote several masterpieces, accepted the dedication and gave the first performance with the composer. This work needs the firm shaping it gets from the performers here.