Cello Sonata No. 2 (Mendelssohn)
Encyclopedia
Felix Mendelssohn
's Cello Sonata
No. 2 in D major, Op
. 58 was composed in June 1843. The work, which was dedicated to the Russian/Polish cellist Count Mateusz Wielhorski, has four movements
:
A typical performance lasts 25 minutes.
Of particular interest is the Adagio, because it mirrors Mendelssohn's fascination with the music of J. S. Bach
. (He was then musical director of the Gewandhaus concerts at Leipzig and, as such, Bach's distant successor.) The movement consists of a chorale in Bach's typical style, played by the piano in rich arpeggios. In between the phrases of the chorale, the cello plays recitative-like passages.
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's Cello Sonata
Cello sonata
A cello sonata is usually a sonata written for cello and piano, though other instrumentations are used, such as solo cello. The most famous Romantic-era cellos sonatas are those written by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven...
No. 2 in D major, Op
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
. 58 was composed in June 1843. The work, which was dedicated to the Russian/Polish cellist Count Mateusz Wielhorski, has four 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 assai vivace
- Allegretto scherzando
- Adagio
- Molto allegro e vivace
A typical performance lasts 25 minutes.
Of particular interest is the Adagio, because it mirrors Mendelssohn's fascination with the music of J. S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
. (He was then musical director of the Gewandhaus concerts at Leipzig and, as such, Bach's distant successor.) The movement consists of a chorale in Bach's typical style, played by the piano in rich arpeggios. In between the phrases of the chorale, the cello plays recitative-like passages.