Felix Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58 (MWV Q 32) is a vibrant, virtuosic masterpiece from the high Romantic era.

Written between late 1842 and early 1843, and published in July 1843. Dedicated to the Russian/Polish cellist Count Mateusz Wielhorski (Mathieu Wielhorsky)

More passionate, stormy, and expansive than his earlier D minor sonata (Op. 45), driven by dense piano textures and soaring cello lines

Béla Bartók’s (1881–1945) Romanian Folk Dances (Sz. 56, BB 68) is a vibrant suite of short piano pieces composed in 1915 and orchestrated for small ensemble in 1917. Based on seven traditional Transylvanian folk melodies originally played on fiddle or shepherd’s flute, which Bartók collected during his field research trips. Besides Bartók’s own orchestral version, Arthur Willner arranged it for string orchestra, and Zoltán Székely made a popular version for violin and piano