P ERSONAL R ELATIONSHIP E XTRACTS FROM P ROGRAMME N OTES Copyright © 2007 June Grandwells. All...

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP EXTRACTS FROM PROGRAMME NOTES

Copyright © 2007 June Grandwells. All rights reserved.

Johann Sebastian Bach Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello

Copyright © 2007 June Grandwells. All rights reserved. NextPrevious

There has always been a strong argument that Bach's works should be played with Baroque instruments and interpreted in the way Baroque people would have done. The critics of this idea think that there are no venues which have the same acoustics as the places where his works would have been played during his time, so it would, therefore, be nonsense to use Baroque instruments that can not produce sound befitting today's venues. Moreover, his works have a deep solemnity and his Six Suites, for example, are said to be the Old Testament for cellists.


Nevertheless, I always wonder what he would think if he were alive today. He had an astonishing learning technique, assimilating traditions and combining them with his revolutionary ideas. He broke the conventional rules in order to produce works of unprecedented quality; he probably would not mind our attempting to recreate his musical epoch and would perhaps be amused by our experimenting with new instruments and fresh interpretation. (I honestly think that he would love the Jazz version of his works.)

I am very much interested in his humanistic side as well as the mathematical structure of his works. He once gave up a post because the salary was not as high as he had hoped. Having tried to leave the court orchestra because he had not been chosen to succeed the recently deceased chief conductor, he was detained for the offence of disobedience. Axiomatically, he was a genius but he was a doting husband too; Indeed, for his wife, he wrote music which was the very personification of their love.


Ludwig van Beethoven Five Sonatas for Violoncello and

Pianoforte


Although, in my opinion, Beethoven is the composer who above all others should have written cello concertos, I am always absolutely delighted to perform his Five Sonatas for Violoncello and Pianoforte that are regarded as the New Testament for cellists.

When I was younger, I thought this composer was the hardest to tackle. The imaginations of inexperienced students at the time, mine included, were dominated by the stubborn, tempestuous and aggressive expression in his famous portraits.

It took us a while to unearth eventually, the wonderfully surprising tenderness which features in his music. The story-line of his only opera is something I admire. Love is righteousness and solicitude; it gives the strength to accomplish our dreams.


Antonín Dvořák Concerto for Violoncello and

Orchestra


Dvořák’s concerto is without doubt the most frequently performed cello concerto, so much so that cello students could remember this work before we had started learning it which, I think, is definitely evidence of how great the work is. This ingrained knowledge is reminiscent of the proverb of the child at the temple gate; the child can recite a whole sutra only by listening to it as it is repeated everyday inside the temple. Anyway, I felt as if I had finally become a proper cellist when my tutor had allowed me to learn the concerto for the first time.


This work is filled not only with nostalgia for his homeland after a long stay in America, but also with his unreachable messages; during its composition, he was informed about the illness of a former pupil, who had also been his first love and later became his loyal friend. He arranged one of his songs, which had been her favourite, and placed it into the second movement. Then, having heard about her death, he transformed the last 4 bars of the original ending into a 60 bar coda of overwhelming elegiac grief.

When Brahms heard this work, he is said to have expressed his regret about not having composed a cello concerto himself, a regret I share. By the way, there is a 86 bar introduction before the solo cello's first note during which a certain cellist was said to have fallen asleep on the stage.


Zoltán Kodály Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello


Ever since hearing this work at eleven years of age, it had been my dream to one day play it myself. Kodály was a masterly player of the piano, violin, viola and cello, and knew everything about these instruments. Hence, the difficulty of this work and it is hardly surprising to learn that no one had performed the work since its première until Starker; Professor Yoritoyo Inoue later told me that this was the most difficult cello work to play.

I therefore felt a mixture of emotions, achievement and relief, when reaching the final destination, the summit of this monstrous five‑octave mountain, in front of an audience for the first time. (My real journey in his country was a memorable one. I was lost in Budapest city centre. Everyone was so kind and tried to help me but unfortunately my only Magyar was Kösönöm (Thank you). I felt so relieved when I heard someone speak a familiar language with an accent; But for that handsome (!) and mild-mannered American, I would not be alive today.)


In order to enhance both the characteristics of Transylvanian folk music and also the Polyphonic effect of the work, a cello must be tuned in A, D, F sharp, and B natural; we can feel the strain our cellos endure from the constantly changing tuning, since not many works are written for the same tuning. It is therefore common for a number of cellists to practise this work using the normal tuning, which makes the work sound absolutely hilarious when following the actual notes on the music sheet. Anyway, this work is one of my favourite ones.


Bohuslav Martinů Sonata No. 1 for Violoncello and

Pianoforte


During the prosperous era of the avant-garde movement in Paris, Martinů began to gain worldwide recognition, having utilised the sound of machinery, sports and Jazz in his compositions. Not surprisingly, this made him appreciate his nationality more than ever, but his attempt to return to his country failed because of the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia and the subsequent Second World War.

I fell in love, at first sight (sound), with this sonata which was composed shortly before the War. Both the fear of the impending war and his longing for peace are reflected in the work. It was dedicated to Pierre Fournier, who incidentally taught two of my tutors. The second movement has the air of a funeral march. In this movement, there is an unmistakeable quotation of the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique; it is adopted as a small canon in which the cello part is played pizzicato. There is a clear indication of a Jazz influence in the subsidiary theme in the third movement.


Robert Alexander Schumann Concerto for Violoncello and

Orchestra


Schumann once had to leave a position as conductor because the symptoms of his psychoneurosis were worsening markedly. Another time, he tried to commit suicide by drowning. As has been said, his compositions reveal his schizophrenic state, which makes me think that he would have been too sensitive to deal with the reality of life on many occasions.

However, when considering his triumphant use of a chord or series of chords, I cannot deny that he must have had an incredible strength that he himself might not have been aware of. Despite his fragility, he showed his boundless love and fervour in introducing young musicians such as Mendelssohn, Chopin and Brahms to the world.

His Concerto is undoubtedly one of the most important in the cello repertoire, and one that I am particularly fond of; I am most grateful to him for his decision to alter this work to be played on the cello since it was originally conceived as a violin concerto. I wish he had written cello sonatas too. Copyright © 2007 June Grandwells. All rights reserved. NextPrevious

Dimitry ShostakovichSonata for Violoncello and

Pianoforte


Due to his seemingly willing display of his loyalty towards the communist government's realism campaign during the Second World War, Shostakovich was severely criticised when the war was over. He then recovered his reputation by writing a work endorsing Stalin's policy. He could alter the style or the genre of his compositions as requested by the powers that be, and was seen as opportunistic until the dissenting messages hidden in his works were unveiled. It is an unfathomable tragedy that the arts are used for propaganda.


No matter however much I tried to comprehend these things, I was still sceptical of this work. The funeral march in the last section of the first movement, and the third movement, made me feel too depressed to continue my practice. I was also unable to follow his intention when an abrupt interruption by a motif, which seems to have absolutely no connection whatsoever with the previous passage, arises in the fourth movement. The first theme of this movement seemed to suggest he was sneering at me. Salvation came in the form of a 10 year‑old girl who heard me practising this sneering part in preparation for my recital. “I like it. It's interesting!!”

I reconsidered the importance of cherishing that innocent reaction to music. This sonata has become one of the most beloved in my repertoire, as have his two concertos.

Copyright © 2007 June Grandwells. All rights reserved.Previous Antique Frames: www.antiqueframes.eu / Wallpaper: httpwww.wallpaperdirect.co.uk

P ERSONAL R ELATIONSHIP E XTRACTS FROM P ROGRAMME N OTES Copyright © 2007 June Grandwells. All...

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