Edgar Moreau | cello
Nelson Goerner | piano
Edgar Moreau’s cello and Nelson Goerner’s piano celebrate Franck and Brahms.
Franck Sonata for cello and piano in A major
Brahms Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 for cello and piano
Franck’s Sonata for violin and piano was one of the drivers for a revival in French chamber music. With a few exceptions, music under the Second Empire essentially took the form of opera and even operetta. In contrast to his late works, Franck’s Sonata for Violin, composed in 1886, immediately received a warm critical reception from audiences and critics. The arrangement for cello, one of many such arrangements of the work, is incredibly beautiful, and was premiered two years later. Its melodic richness and harmonic brightness make it one of the most famous pieces in the repertoire. Brahms composed two pieces at twenty years interval for cello and piano. Their rich warm sounds blend particularly well with Brahmsian expression. These sonatas, which are at the pinnacle of chamber music, demand complementarity and osmosis from performers. Softness and rage, melancholy and frenzy, meditation and elation rub shoulders in eloquently spontaneous inflections. The more we listen, the more the depth and lyricism of the fantastical element of this duel between cello and piano become apparent.
Coréalisation Piano**** | Théâtre des Champs-Elysées