Cello Sonata in D major, Op. 17
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1878
- Duration
- 17'
- Publisher
- Hildegard Publishing Company
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About this piece
Le Beau wrote this D major sonata in 1878 and entered it in the competition for new cello works announced by the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in 1880 (judged by Gade, Reinecke and Bernuth), alongside the fifteen-year-old Richard Strauss. Neither sonata won, though her Four Pieces, Op. 24, took a prize; she found a publisher in August Cranz, who also had the sonata arranged for violin. Steven Isserlis, who recorded it for Hyperion, hears Mendelssohn's influence in every movement and praises its sunny energy and winning melodies, calling its neglect inexplicable. The ravishing Andante tranquillo shows the cello's tender side before a virtuosic Allegro vivace finale.
Technical overview
Three movements: Allegro molto, Andante tranquillo, Allegro vivace. The finale is described as virtuosic for the cello and the piano part borders on virtuosic; the writing is lyrical and Mendelssohnian throughout. Hildegard's edition pairs a reprint of the original piano score with a newly engraved cello part.