Steven Isserlis's grandfather, Julius Isserlis, played Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata with the work's dedicatee, cellist Anatoly Brandukov, who revealed that Rachmaninov preferred a fortissimo at one point in the coda, despite the printed pianissimo.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Rachmaninov believed that art could not exist without religion, as revealed in a story by Charlie Chaplin in his autobiography.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Rachmaninov and Franck, though very different personalities, shared a powerful religious fervour that was present throughout their lives and music.
Compositional Technique
The mystical aspect of Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata is evident in themes with close intervals, incense-filled colours, passionate repetition of single notes, and frequent bell-like sonorities, owing a debt to Russian Church music.
Composition History
Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata was written in 1901, the year after his beloved Second Piano Concerto, and reflects his recovery from a nervous breakdown following the catastrophic failure of his First Symphony in 1897.
Instruments
Steven Isserlis plays on the 'Feuermann' Stradivarius of 1730, kindly loaned to him by the Nippon Music Foundation of Japan.
Composition History
César Franck's Sonata, dating from 1886, may have been originally conceived as a cello sonata, but Franck changed his mind to present it as a wedding gift to violinist Eugène Ysaÿe.
