Much of these two sonatas is about partnership; the nature of chamber music lends itself to this reading. And with these works, the idea of partnership occurs not only in their respective histories but in the interplay of the instruments themselves, with piano and cello performing equally. This is unsurprising when the works’ composers are known for their catalogue of piano works and their fame as pianists.
For Chopin and Auguste Franchomme — friend, colleague, and dedicatee of the Cello Sonata — partnership extends beyond this piece. Friends for seventeen years, the pair co-wrote the Grand duo concertant in E major, B. 70, and Franchomme reworked the cello part for the Introduction and Polonaise brillante, op. 3. The Cello Sonata emerged from Chopin’s late period, towards the end of his life, acting as a bridge between the past and the future. Overflowing with themes, the sonata plays with form. Some hear the opening of “Gute Nacht” from Schubert’s Winterreise structuring the work, lending to the cello’s singing quality in the first movement. Thinking about the sonata through this lens deepens the idea of partnership, where the vocal and piano lines work together to convey an emotion, here perhaps, melancholy. The sonata consists of four movements (Allegro moderato, Scherzo, Largo, Allegro) where the majority of the work’s motivic and thematic material emerges from the first movement. The movement’s sprawling nature and the intimate character of its themes made it difficult and puzzling for listeners, performers, and even Chopin himself, who agonized over its composition. The other three movements, however, perform a more discernible formal unity, making sense of the first. When Franchomme premiered the work in 1848, Chopin’s last public concert, only the last three movements were performed. On his deathbed, Chopin asked to hear Mozart and his Cello Sonata, though he could only bear a few measures of the latter. In that moment, Chopin himself was the bridge, ushering in the late Romantic style that was to follow. And in that moment, at his bedside, Franchomme was there.
Partnership is also at the center of Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata; Anatoly Brandukov, the sonata’s dedicatee, was Rachmaninoff’s close friend, even the best man at Rachmaninoff’s wedding. Much like Chopin’s friendship with Franchomme, Rachmaninoff and Brandukov’s friendship was also collaborative with the cellist premiering all of Rachmaninoff’s chamber works. The Cello Sonata sees Rachmaninoff return to more Romantic compositional techniques and form, such as a four-movement structure (Lento - Allegro moderato, Allegro scherzando, Andante, Allegro mosso). Throughout the sonata is the singing lyricism Rachmaninoff was known for, often emerging first in the piano and then taking shape in the cello. The piano and cello work as equals, something Rachmaninoff insisted on, reluctantly calling it a ‘cello sonata.’ And unlike the melodic material in the Chopin that evokes a Schubertian melancholia, here we see Rachmaninoff working his way out of the depression that followed the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony just a few years prior. Instead of finality, we experience triumph.
– Imani Danielle Mosley
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