Sandra Lied Haga, Cello
Anna Fedorova, Piano
Performers
Sandra Lied Haga, Cello
Anna Fedorova, Piano
Program
R. SCHUMANN Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70
PROKOFIEV Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 119
BRAHMS Cello Sonata No. 2
CHOPIN Introduction and Polonaise brillante, Op. 3
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately 90 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission.At a Glance
R. SCHUMANN Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70
Originally written for French horn, this richly lyrical diptych has become a standard of the cello literature. Although the valve horn had been in existence for some 30 years by the time Schumann wrote it in 1849, the older natural horn still held sway in most European orchestras. The Adagio and Allegro helped gain the new instrument wider acceptance.
PROKOFIEV Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 119
In the late 1940s, having been charged by the Soviet authorities with trafficking in “formalist distortions,” Prokofiev withdrew into the private realm of chamber music. Among other works, he wrote the last of his nine piano sonatas, the unprepossessingly lyrical Sonata for Solo Violin, and the richly meditative Cello Sonata in C Major.
BRAHMS Cello Sonata No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99
The “autumnal” quality often ascribed to Brahms’s music owes much to his partiality—especially in his later years—for the alto voice and the burnished timbres of the viola and clarinet; yet, he was drawn to the distinctive sound of the cello as well. He demonstrated his affinity for the instrument in two sonatas, of which Op. 99 is the more outgoing and exuberant.
CHOPIN Introduction and Polonaise brillante, Op. 3
In the fall of 1829, fresh from a triumphant tour of Austria and Germany, Chopin accepted an invitation from Prince Antoni Radziwiłł to visit his hunting lodge in the mountains outside Warsaw. An amateur composer and cellist, the prince was eager for his daughters to have high-level musical instruction. It was for one of the “two young Eves in this paradise,” as Chopin called them, that he composed the Introduction and Polonaise brillante.