Faure Cello Sonata no 2
Debussy Cello Sonata
Plus music by Bach and Poulenc

Diana Hinds piano
Coral Lancaster cello

Faure Cello (1845-1924) Sonata no 2 in G minor

Fame came late to Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924). Probably the most advanced French composer of his generation, he was able to write music only during summer vacations while toiling principally as a choirmaster and teacher. The great master of French song, Fauré sold his songs to his publisher outright for only 50 francs apiece.

Fortunately, Fauré lived long enough to see ultimate success. At the age of 60 he became director of the Paris Conservatory, a post that made him suddenly famous, although again leaving him with little time to compose. He was also troubled by an increasing deafness and a hearing impairment which distorted pitches at the high and low ends of the range.

Nonetheless, he retained his creative gifts to the end of his life – indeed, it is the later works that inspired the fervent admiration of younger composers such as Aaron Copland and Arthur Honegger. Fauré composed his First Cello Sonata, a violent, tragic work in D minor, during World War I. Although it is also cast in a three-movement form and set in a closely related minor key, the Second Cello Sonata (from 1921) is little like the First in spirit. Despite the prevailing minor modes, its turbulent energies are more ecstatic than angry. The agitation of the Brahmsian opening movement comes from the off-the-beat piano part, its syncopations restlessly extended over long passages against an ardent, noble cello line. The austere slow movement, with its serene resolution in major mode, is based on a Chant funéraire originally written a year earlier for the centenary of Napoleon’s death, while the finale is a dramatic whirlwind of a piece, filled with athletic exuberance.

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Sonata for cello and piano (1915)

Prologue: Lent, sostenuto e molto risoluto
Sérénade: Modérément animé
Finale: Animé, léger et nerveux

Given the popularity and influence of his 1893 string quartet, it is surprising that Debussy rote so very little chamber music . A second quartet and a violin sonata were started around that time but not completed, and then almost no chamber music for 20 or so years. By 1914 things did not look good. A recent diagnosis of colorectal cancer together with depression at the outbreak of war had stopped him composing. But hearing a Septet with trumpet by Saint-Saëns stimulated an ambitious project: six sonatas each for a different combination of instruments. inspired by French baroque composers including Couperin. Tonight’s cello sonata was the first to be completed (1915) followed by one for flute, viola & harp (1916) and one for violin & piano (1917); but three others were not finished before his death in March 1918: oboe, horn & harpsichord; clarinet, bassoon, trumpet & piano; and the sixth ‘combining the previously used instruments’. The novel combination of oboe, horn & harpsichord subsequently inspired the Sonata da Caccia by 20-year-old Couperin fan Thomas Adès.

The cello sonata was written in a few weeks in July 1915 at the Normandy seaside town of Pourville, just west of Dieppe. It is a relatively short work (c. 10m) but, as so often with Debussy, draws a dazzling variety of sounds from the two instruments; it is technically demanding for both players. Structurally the work refers to classical French styles – Couperin was a favourite of Debussy – with just three movements, and without the clear exposition, development, recapitulation of the German tradition. The principal theme is heard as a lyrical, descending line in the cello (illustrated).

The mood changes dramatically for the episodically quirky Sérénade with lots of pizzicato from the cello. It leads without a break into the Finale which combines elements of the two preceding movements. For instance, the next illustrated passage is perhaps a crazy tumbling version of the opening principal theme, but analysing Debussy is beyond my pay grade! Just enjoy it.