Messages of closure transformed into sound
Whoever thinks of the duo cello and piano simply has to start with beethoven. Beethoven was, after all, the composer who gave this instrumentation lasting validity. His sonatas were the decisive contribution to establishing the cello as a solo instrument in chamber music.
The "duo biloba" began with beethoven his guest performance in the "elsa47" series. Beethoven's D major sonata op. 102/2, the last of his five sonatas in this instrumentation, is a real challenge for the interpreters – at times sparse in gesture, very dense in the sequence of contrasts, and yet always very intense in expression. The cellist christiane pape and the pianist anne-kathrein jordan succeeded in a stylistically confident, sensitive and emphatic interpretation. Already here, pape and jordan proved to be an ideally harmonizing, responsive duo.
Intense musical dialogue
Robert schumann's three fantasiestucke op. 73, originally written for clarinet and piano, are also often performed in combination with cello and piano, as was the case this evening in elsa.
They live from the intensive dialogue between the two instruments and from their melodic appeal, which christiane pappe unfolded with a coarse tone and anne-kathrein jordan with differentiated percussive artistry. The music of the russian composer dmitri shostakovich often seems confessional in gesture and at the same time betrayed, provided with coded messages – a sounding mirror image of an artist's life between public recognition and politically motivated respect under the dictates of a totalitarian regime.
Rugged contrasts
Of which the four-movement cello sonata op. 40, which was first performed in 1934 – two years before the infamous article "chaos instead of music", the 1936 "pravda" report and the shostakovich opera "lady macbeth" was released ideologically branded. Pape and jordan explored the sonata in its contrasts between quiet melancholy and aggressive virtuosity with coarse emphasis and courage for abrupt contrasts and were rewarded for this by the audience with persistent applause.
As a thank you, there was a melodically impressive encore – the second of the five "pieces in folk tone" by robert schumann.