The cello is probably the stringed instrument whose timbre is closest to the human voice. It is a tenor’s voice, passionate but shaded. The violin, undisputed prince of the strings, likes to be in the limelight. The cello was expected to sing, especially in the 19th century.
Beethoven had the same idea, as is clear from his variations in 1801 on the duet between Pamina and Papageno from Act I of Mozart’s Magic Flute: “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen”. The opera had suggested another set of variations for cello and piano too, on Papageno’s well-known aria in Act II. These are bright virtuoso pages, with no claims to glory but illuminated by the reflected beauty of Mozart’s themes.
Melody everywhere – again in the third of Beethoven’s five sonatas for cello and piano. In Sonata op. 69, dated 1808, the lyricism reminds us of the Pastoral Symphony, written about the same time. Lyricism in the first movement and the last, luminous and light, introduced by a brief Adagio cantabile; in between comes a vigorous Scherzo, veiled in mystery.
The source of inspiration is the same for Brahms’ Sonata op. 38, with its fascinating melodic inventions, sketched out in 1862 and terminated in the summer of 1865 amidst the fields and woodland of Lichtenal, near Baden-Baden. It opens with a theme on the cello’s low strings, with piano chords accompanying it. This shows how the young Brahms, only 32 at the time, was already inclined towards melancholy. The Allegro ma non troppo is followed by an Allegretto quasi Menuetto, whose “nocturnal” lyricism in the style of Mendelssohn explains why Brahms eliminated the planned slow movement – possibly already composed. A lyrical oasis between two lyrical movements would have been too much. In the Finale, however, Brahms looks back to the giants who preceded him – Bach and Beethoven, especially Beethoven’s late period, when he managed to blend the classical sonata form with the baroque fugue: the complex Allegro that concludes the Sonata grafts a severe fugue, based on three themes, onto a solid sonata-form. Melody once more, and again – like in Beethoven’s variations – brilliant virtuosism marks the Fantaisie sur deux airs russes op. 13 by the Belgian composer and virtuoso Adrien-François Servais. The Fantasie is just one of the numerous extraordinary concert pieces in the ample 19th century repertory.

Luca Segalla