Crumb / Hindemith / Kodaly / Sallinen: Works for Solo Cello

Featuring

Frans Helmerson
Zoltán Kodály
George Crumb
Paul Hindemith
Aulis Sallinen

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Composer's Artistic Vision

For Kodály, art was not an end in itself, but a means to express contemporary feelings and ideas, mirroring folk music and giving voice to outer reality without diminishing the artist's personal reaction.

Composition History

Paul Hindemith once wrote four movements of his Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 25 No. 3, in a single evening during a composition competition in Donaueschingen in July 1922.

Composer Biography

Paul Hindemith was a highly versatile composer who could play almost any orchestral instrument and was a viola virtuoso, having supported himself by playing in dance bands and orchestras.

Composition History

Zoltán Kodály was the first composer to significantly expand the cello repertoire with a major solo piece since Bach's suites, almost two hundred years earlier.

Composer Biography

Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók, two foundational figures in contemporary Hungarian music, met through a woman they both admired and began their musical expeditions into the Hungarian countryside from her salon in 1905.

Compositional Technique

Kodály's Sonata for Solo Cello uses techniques like tuning down the bottom strings to B and F sharp, left-handed pizzicato, arpeggios, chords, tremolos, and trills to create an expressive and colorful sound.

Performer Biography

Frans Helmerson, the cellist on this recording, won top prizes at the 1971 Cassadó competition in Florence, the 1971 Geneva competition, and the 1973 Munich competition.