In the article he comments on this second movement: The last sonata, in D major, takes off in other new directions. After the dramatic opening movement, Beethoven gives us, for the first time in these works, a full slow movement, a prayer that must surely be the most beautiful movement ever written for cello and piano.
‘the most beautiful movement ever written for cello and piano’ Wow. And that’s praise from a guy who plays the cello.
Beethoven’s 5th (and last) Cello Sonata in D maj. / second movement
From a Naxos music review: Faure’s two cello sonatas are compact, beautifully written works whose musical language, with its many subtle changes of tonality and gift for melody, has been described as conveying ‘the power of tranquil thought’.
Francois Couperin popped into my mind the other day. I thought:
‘Wasn’t he an important Baroque composer?… Then how come I only have one piece by him in my library?”
So I went surfing in my paid download sites. I found that Bach loved his 4 volumes of harpsichord music – Richard Strauss and Ravel admired his music and Brahms piano music was inspired by him.
Since I don’t like the harpsichord or vocal (and that’s mostly what he composed) – I was looking for other stuff. I found these pieces adapted for the piano (originally for harpsichord) AND some killer cello!
The piano artist on these pieces, Alexandre Tharaud, says about the first piece below: ” I have a particularly soft spot for Duphly’s La Pothoïn, which for me is one of the loveliest pieces ever composed for keyboard.”
duphly-la-pothouin
More ‘piano adapted’ pieces from the Tic Toc Choc series. I like these two from the series: La Visionnaire and Les Jumeles
la visionnaire
les jumeles
And then some ‘killer cello’ I love this first one
My quick 2 cents worth about Rachmaninoff! I feel that although he composed some of the most exquisite melodies, somehow he never quite “gets there”. In the way Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Chopin and Mozart (amongst others!) construct a melody/theme; and when they want to Climax – they do. Rachi, on the other hand, I feel, just almost takes us there!
My brother claims I never asked him what our mother’s favourite was! (*see comments on the piece above) But I think I did ask him and my subconscious played a trick on me – because I like the movement from the violin concerto much more than this. Anyway there’s plenty of music to enjoy here in the three movements. It was the last piece that Brahms wrote for orchestra… and really was My Mommy’s Favourite!
Brahms Double Concerto for violin and cello. First, second and third movements.
