Sheku & Isata Kanneh-Mason

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FRANK BRIDGE
Cello Sonata in D minor H. 125

BENJAMIN BRITTEN
‘Tema Sacher’ for Cello Solo

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
Fourteen Romances Op. 34:  No. 1 ‘Muza’ & No. 7 ‘Ne mozhet byt′!’

FRANK BRIDGE
‘Spring Song’ H. 104 No. 2
Melodie for Cello and Piano in C-sharp minor H. 99
Scherzo for Cello and Piano H. 19a

BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Cello Sonata Op. 65

Frank Bridge composed his Cello Sonata between 1913 and 1917. The romantic first movement was probably completed before the First World War, and features both yearning and rapture. The slow movement clearly reflects Bridge’s despair at the war, while also pushing at the confines of tonal harmony. One of the cello repertoire’s most important composer-musician relationships is then honoured by Britten’s Cello Sonata and ‘Tema Sacher’, the first and last of the works he wrote for Mstislav Rostropovich. The former dates from 1961, written after the pair met at Rostropovich’s UK premiere of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1, also written for him. The gem-sized latter was a 70th birthday tribute in 1976 to their friend, Swiss conductor Paul Sacher. Rachmaninoff’s ‘Muza’ and ‘Ne mozhet byt’!‘ meanwhile are transcriptions from the same song cycle as the famous Élegie