Bloch, Ligeti & Dallapiccola: Suites for Solo Cello

Featuring

Natalie Clein
Ernest Bloch
Luigi Dallapiccola
György Ligeti

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Composition History

Ernest Bloch's three suites for solo cello were written in 1956-57 at the suggestion of cellist Zara Nelsova, who asked him to compose for solo cello.

Composition History

György Ligeti's Sonata for solo cello began as the first movement, Dialogo, composed in 1948 as a love-token for a fellow student, but she never played it.

Performer Biography

Natalie Clein, the cellist on this recording, gained widespread attention at age sixteen by winning both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Ernest Bloch, a Jewish composer, believed that racial consciousness, not nationalism, was essential in music, aspiring to write Jewish music because it was the only way he could produce vital and significant music.

Instruments

Natalie Clein performs on the 'Simpson' Guadagnini cello of 1777.

Composition History

Luigi Dallapiccola, whose wife was Jewish and who was a fervent anti-fascist, composed Ciaccona, Intermezzo e Adagio in 1945, the same year he began his opera Il prigioniero.