Sonata for Violoncello and Piano in E minor (2023)
This piece was premiered in May 2024 in Spain by Juan Aguilera Cerezo and Santiago Báez and recorded shortly thereafter for release on my debut album. This large-scale sonata represents perhaps my most mature fusion of Romantic and Modern influences into an expressive and individual vision. The first movement revels in winding chromatic harmony while yet making ample space for lyricism, and of course, dialogue between the two instrumental protagonists. The movement’s structure is an individual take on the classical sonata form: a prolonged allegro exposition, already rich in development, and in place of a development, a nested slow movement—something of an eye in the center of the more turbulent and stormy exposition and recapitulation. The movement’s coda retreats to the inner slow movement’s tempo and figuration, but amidst the starkest of textures, sets the main allegro theme in this more tragic context. The second movement is a large theme-and-variations-qua-finale in the tradition of Beethoven’s op. 109 and op. 111 piano sonatas. Based on a simple theme presented in starkest terms, variations 1-3 increase in chromatic complexity and chaotic sense of rhythm. Variation 4 is slow and melancholically expressive—perhaps the emotional heart of the set. Variation 5 picks up the tempo, only to yield to another slow variation, this time more lilting, a lullaby reminiscent of Brahms, and the only variation in major. The final variation ends the work with fitting intensity, and briefly recalls the main theme of the first movement.
Cello-Sonata-E-minor-Kalcheim