Lieder ohne Worte in D Major

As their collective title suggests, Mendelssohn’s “Songs Without Words” express a poetic, visual or merely melodic idea in a few minutes. Mendelssohn composed such miniatures under the same title over his entire career, though he wrote most of them for solo piano; his very last, Lied ohne Worte, was composed in the autumn of 1845, two years before he died aged only 38 (it was published posthumously in 1868), and is ideal for the plangent, vocal tones of the cello with piano accompaniment. Lasting around five minutes, this work is much cherished by cellists as an encore piece, its initial lyricism giving way to a more agitated central D minor section reminiscent of the cello-led opening of the First Piano Trio in the same key. When the lyrical music returns it is only briefly clouded by the unrest of the central section before coming to a serene close.