Christian Poltera & Ronald Brautigam - Mendelssohn: Works for Cello & Piano (2017)

It is well known that Felix Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny was a highly talented musician, but fewer are familiar with the fact that there were two other musical siblings in the Mendelssohn family: Rebecka, a gifted singer, and Paul, a very competent amateur cellist. It is to Paul, a banker by profession, that we owe the existence of much of Felix’s music for the instrument, which in spite of Beethoven’s endeavours hadn’t yet become firmly established as a duo partner of the piano.

Fitting comfortably on a single disc, Mendelssohn’s works for cello and piano are here presented by Christian Poltéra and Ronald Brautigam, who open with the Variations concertantes in D major, composed in 1829. Brautigam has recently released the composer’s Lieder ohne Worte, performing them on a copy of a piano by Pleyel from 1830, and plays the same instrument on the present disc. Meanwhile, Poltéra has chosen to equip his 1711 Stradivarius cello with gut strings, and together the two musicians and their instruments create a sound which is both flexible, transparent and vigorous – ideal for Mendelssohn’s scores. The two substantial sonatas, composed in 1838 and 1843, are separated on the disc by a brief ‘Albumblatt’ and a Romance sans paroles in D major, the only ‘song without words’ that Mendelssohn wrote for two instruments rather than piano solo.

TRACKLIST

01. Variations concertantes in D Major, Op. 17, MWV Q 19: Tema. Andante con moto
02. Variations concertantes in D Major, Op. 17, MWV Q 19: Var. 1,
03. Variations concertantes in D Major, Op. 17, MWV Q 19: Var. 2,
04. Variations concertantes in D Major, Op. 17, MWV Q 19: Var. 3, Più vivace
05. Variations concertantes in D Major, Op. 17, MWV Q 19: Var. 4, Allegro con fuoco
06. Variations concertantes in D Major, Op. 17, MWV Q 19: Var. 5, L'istesso tempo
07. Variations concertantes in D Major, Op. 17, MWV Q 19: Var. 6, L'istesso tempo
08. Variations concertantes in D Major, Op. 17, MWV Q 19: Var. 7, Presto ed agitato
09. Variations concertantes in D Major, Op. 17, MWV Q 19: Var. 8, Tempo I-Coda. Più animato
10. Cello Sonata No. 1 in B-Flat Major, Op. 45, MWV Q 27: I. Allegro vivace
11. Cello Sonata No. 1 in B-Flat Major, Op. 45, MWV Q 27: II. Andante
12. Cello Sonata No. 1 in B-Flat Major, Op. 45, MWV Q 27: III. Allegro assai
13. Lied ohne Worte, Op. 109, MWV Q 34
14. Assai tranquillo in B Minor, MWV Q 25
15. Cello Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58, MWV Q 32: I. Allegro assai vivace
16. Cello Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58, MWV Q 32: II. Allegretto scherzando
17. Cello Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58, MWV Q 32: III. Adagio
18. Cello Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58, MWV Q 32: IV. Molto allegro e vivace