Cello Sonata No. 2 in C major (piano left hand)
by Josef Labor
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1918
- Duration
- 25'30''
- Publisher
- Manuscript (Austrian National Library)
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About this piece
Labor wrote this three-movement sonata in 1918 for his pupil Paul Wittgenstein, the pianist who lost his right arm in the First World War and rebuilt his career on music for the left hand, so the piano part is for the left hand alone. Labor wrote a series of left-hand works for Wittgenstein from 1915 onward, beginning with a concerto premiered at the Musikverein in 1916. The movements are an Allegro con spirito, an Andantino quasi allegretto with a scherzando middle section, and a Rondo that opens Adagio before an Allegro assai. The sonata was never published: it survives in Labor's 1918 manuscript at the Austrian National Library, whose scans of the score and cello part are free on IMSLP. Ensemble TRIS recorded it for Capriccio in 2022, alongside Labor's Clarinet Trio.
Technical overview
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