7/27–Frédéric Chopin: Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 65

Chopin’s Cello Sonata is one of his very last completed compositions. Inspired by the artistry of a close friend, the French cello virtuoso Auguste-Joseph Franchomme, it was first heard in a private performance at Chopin’s Paris home in 1847.  The following year, Franchomme and Chopin played the last three movements at a concert that would mark the composer’s last public performance in Paris. He died in 1849, a victim of tuberculosis, still shy of his 40th birthday.

Chopin began work on the sonata in 1845 at the home of George Sand, the novelist and feminist rebel who for many years had been his friend, mistress, nurse, and surrogate mother figure. Their tempestuous relationship was coming to an end, and some have heard the sadness of their breakup in portions of the sonata. Suffering from physical illness and emotional upheaval, Chopin was beginning to find the work of composition a struggle. He wrote at the time, “I am doing everything I can to work, but without success.” And in specific reference to this piece: “With my sonata for cello and piano I am now contented, now discontented. I lay it aside, then pick it up again.”

The first movement, the longest one, is marked allegro moderato (lively, but not too lively, moderately.) The themes show Chopin at his most lyrically beautiful. It’s interesting to hear the major importance given to the piano part, even though the work features the cello, since Chopin never loses interest in his own instrument, for which he wrote so poetically.

The scherzo is sometimes called alla polacca (in Polish style), because the composer uses here the rhythms of dances from his native land. The fast-paced main section, with its adventurous harmonies, is contrasted with a more serene midsection marked cantabile: singing. The brief third movement is marked largo, meaning slow and stately; it’s an intense and serious interlude before the allegro finale, whose lively rhythms are derived from a headlong Italian dance, the tarantella.

program notes by Andrea Lamoreaux