Sonatas and Romances — Matinée

Krzysztof Michalski is a Polish cellist who achieved historic success, winning the second prize at the ARD International Music Competition in 2024. The Munich competition for performers is one of the most important events of this type. Their laureates arouse the interest of music lovers around the world. At NFM, a native of Tarnobrzeg, the artist and pianist Antonin Bonnet will present together masterpieces of nineteenth-century cello literature.

During the concert, Ludwig van Beethoven's 3rd Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 69, composed at the turn of 1807 and 1808, will be the first to sound. This work represents the mature style of the composer, harmoniously combining classical tradition with a foretaste of romanticism. Both the graceful cantilene and the dramatic energy so characteristic of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, which were being created at the same time, can be heard in it. Both instruments are treated here as equal partners. The opening of the sonata gradually takes on vibrancy, passing into a gripping cycle of tension and relaxation, followed by the delightful fervor of Scherzo. After a brief free part, the whole thing is crowned with a euphoric finale. Robert Schumann's Three Romances Op. 94 were originally intended for oboe and piano. The German artist wrote them in December 1849 - not long before a deep nervous breakdown. Even then, however, he struggled with manic episodes. Perhaps it is with them that the pessimism that prevails in the first and last link of the cycle should be associated. They are contrasted with Romance II, in which the idyllic, intimate mood is juxtaposed with the roughness and dynamism of the middle section of this composition.

“In the Cello Sonata, passion is indivisibly ruled — fiery to violent, yet again defiantly contemptuous or painfully lamenting,” wrote the famous music critic Eduard Hanslick about Johannes Brahms's Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99. It will sound at the end of the matinee. Its four parts were created in the summer of 1886 during the artist's stay in Switzerland. However, the unusual expressiveness of the work could also cause difficulties for the performers. An anecdote about a cellist who had the honor to play this piece next to the author himself went down in history. When, after the performance, she complained that she had not heard her own instrument through the powerful fiery tremolands in the piano part, the composer reportedly unceremoniously cut himself off: “You were lucky!”