Ginastera: Cello Sonata, Op. 49

The young Croation cellist Jelena Ocic has been singled out as one of the most gifted of her generation. On this CD she is accompanied by the pianist Frederico Lovato in a collection of pieces by three composers whose musical roots come from the traditions of the countries of their birth, Ginastera (Argentina), Kabalevsky (Russia), and Senderovas (Lithuania).

Bernard Greenhouse, founding cellist of the great Beaux Arts Trio, has referred to Jelena Ocic as “one of the most remarkable cello talents of today”, while the late Siegfried Palm called her “one of the most promising interpreters of New Music”. Of the composers represented on this collection of music for cello and piano, the least known is the Lithuanian Anatolijus Šenderovas. Born in 1945, his music is notable for its expressivity, diversity of timbre, dynamic rhythm and eloquent use of modern musical language. Dmitri Kabalevsky was born in 1904 in St. Petersburg. He was a front liner among the first generation of Soviet composers, and his music found its place in traditional and popular forms of musical language. Alberto Ginastera was born in Buenos Aires in 1916 to a Catalan father and an Italian mother, and his music is strongly influenced by the folk traditions of his native Argentina.

Ginastera himself wrote of the Sonata, Op. 49, one of his last works from his Neo-Expressionist period: “Strong rhythms, lyrical singing, and a mysterious atmosphere are, I think, the characteristics of this work consisting of four movements”.