Cello Sonata (Grieg)
Encyclopedia
Edvard Grieg
composed the Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 36, his largest chamber
work, in 1883 marking a return to composition following a period when the composer had been pre-occupied with his conducting duties at the Bergen Symphony Orchestra as well as illness. Grieg dedicated the piece to his brother, John, a keen amateur cellist. Ludwig Grützmacher premièred the work with Grieg at the piano on the 22 of October 1883 in Dresden
.
The sonata has three movements
:
The work takes approximately 25 minutes to perform. Grieg later made disparaging remarks on the sonata. In his opinion the sonata didn't show any progress compared to his earlier chamber music works (e.g. the String Quartet
, Op. 27). An analysis of the sonata shows that Grieg to a certain extent might have been right.
Gary Karr
arranged the sonata as a double bass
concerto
on his album Virtuoso Double Bass.
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
composed the Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 36, his largest chamber
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
work, in 1883 marking a return to composition following a period when the composer had been pre-occupied with his conducting duties at the Bergen Symphony Orchestra as well as illness. Grieg dedicated the piece to his brother, John, a keen amateur cellist. Ludwig Grützmacher premièred the work with Grieg at the piano on the 22 of October 1883 in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
.
The sonata has three movements
Movement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...
:
- Allegro agitato
- Andante molto tranquillo
- Allegro molto e marcato
The work takes approximately 25 minutes to perform. Grieg later made disparaging remarks on the sonata. In his opinion the sonata didn't show any progress compared to his earlier chamber music works (e.g. the String Quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
, Op. 27). An analysis of the sonata shows that Grieg to a certain extent might have been right.
Gary Karr
Gary Karr
Gary Karr b. November 20, 1941 in Los Angeles, California, is an American classical double bass virtuoso and teacher.- Biography :Although he comes from seven generations of bassists, he was not encouraged by them to go into music...
arranged the sonata as a double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
on his album Virtuoso Double Bass.