Cello Sonata in G Minor

Both cellist and pianist get many chances to shine in Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata. The music is deeply expressive, with the cello’s melodic lines soaring above rich, dynamic piano textures. Rachmaninoff was inspired to write the Sonata by Anatoliy Brandukov, a close friend and one of the leading Russian cellists of the day. He and the composer premiered the work in Moscow in 1901. Rachmaninoff wrote a highly virtuosic piano part for himself, with the piano introducing most of the melodies, which the cello then elaborates. The work opens quietly, with a rising stepwise figure in the cello: this is the germ of the Sonata, from which the melodies grow. The tempo picks up, and the first movement is dramatic and diverse, with the complex piano lines exploring adventurous harmonies beneath the cello’s long lines. The second movement is a brisk scherzo, its rhythms often articulated by the cello in pizzicato (plucking). The third movement, “Andante”, has one of Rachmaninoff’s most passionate and inspired melodies, similar in spirit to his Piano Concerto No. 2, written the same year. The finale opens with a bright, strident theme, and a joyful mood predominates, especially in the coda, where Rachmaninoff adds a final burst of virtuosic flair to the piano part to end the work on a real high.