Doris Hochscheid & Frans van Ruth - Dutch Sonatas for Violoncello and Piano Vol. 1 (2008) [SACD]

Doris Hochscheid and Frans van Ruth have set themselves a common goal in life: the cultivation of Dutch chamber music. These two outstanding soloists have developed an extensive repertoire for cello and piano, with music by Dutch composers forming their special focus for some years now. The Netherlands Cello Sonata Foundation established on the initiative of the two musicians is lending its financial support to this new CD series
featuring what are mostly world-premiere recordings and produced in cooperation with MDG.

Courageous Closing of Repertoire Gaps
The Dutch Cello Sonata

“Dutch musicality is not an emulsion of German let’s-think-some-more-about-it and French we-have-a-special-knack; Dutch musicality is the consequence of five centuries of cultural unity.” It was with these words that the composer Willem Pijper summed up the feelings of his generation.
Willem Pijper’s two cello sonatas make clear what it was that Dutch composers stood for during the early twentieth century. With the music of Gustav Mahler and Claude Debussy in the back of their minds, they came forward to set their own accents with music that is expressive, surprising, gripping, and impressive. Rudolf Escher, Pijper’s most important composition pupil and in his own time the director of the new Rotterdam Conservatory,
pursued this style in his Sonata Concertante. Luctor Ponse’s cello sonata is much more classical; owing to his Franco-Dutch background, this composer was much less obliged to modernism.


Tracks:

Willem Pijper (1894-1947)
Sonata for Violoncello and Piano (1919)
01-Maestoso (Lento ma non troppo) 6’11
02-Nocturne 5’00
03-Finale. Maestoso (Andante moderato.) 6’01

Luctor Ponse (1914-1998)
Sonata for Violoncello and Piano (1943)
04-Allegro con moto 5’54
05-Vivace 3’08
06-Lento 9’46
07-Allegro 4’26

Willem Pijper (1894-1947)
Sonata No. 2
for Violoncello and Piano (1924)
08-Larghetto grazioso 4’51
09-Allegro pesante, ma agitato 2’41
10-Molto lento 4’37

Rudolf Escher (1912-1980)
Sonata concertante
for Violoncello and Piano (1943, rev. 1955)
11-Allegro agitato 7’20
12-Largo 9’09
13-Lento – Allegrissimo 6’22

Personnel:

Doris Hochscheid: violoncello
Frans van Ruth: piano