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PACM035:
Sonata for Cello and Piano No, 1 in E minor - Brahms
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Emanuel
Feuermann, cello
Theo van der Pas, pianoforte
Recorded
in 1934, released as UK Columbia LX8172-4
Matrix
numbers: CAX7211-7215
All first takes excepts sides 3&4 - 2nd takes
Download ID: 213475, 434942
(Duration
19'55")
Play
sample movement:
Of his
two sonatas for cello and piano, it is the later second in F major (Op.99,
written in 1886) which is usually preferred over this first sonata, composed
between 1862-65, perhaps for its degree of passion. And yet, in the hands
of a great cellist there too is much passion to be wrought from the Sonata
in E minor.
There is
little doubt about the abilities of Emanuel Feuermann as a cellist, and
yet due to his untimely death following a minor operation in 1942, his
name is almost forgotten by comparison to the likes of Pablo Casals. Indeed
the latter was one of Feuermann's greatest admirers: ""What
a great artist Feuermann was! His early death was a great loss to music."
An online
biography
of the cellist notes: "When Feuermann made his American debut
in 1935, the hall was packed with fellow cellists, who had come to hear
something truly extraordinary. Following the performance a critic wrote,
"Difficulties do not exist for Mr. Feuermann, even difficulties that
would give celebrated virtuosi pause."
"In
1938 an English reviewer wrote in The Strad, following a concert, "I
do not think there can any longer be doubt that Feuermann is the greatest
living cellist, Casals alone excepted...In Feuermann we have a spectacular
virtuosic artist of the front rank, the Wieniawski, shall I say, of the
cello." Feuermann was famous for his unbelievable facility in the
upper registers of the instrument, and was said to be able to easily perform
Mendelssohn's violin concerto on his cello exactly as written for the
violin."
Note that
this wonderful recording, which spanned five sides of very quiet UK Columbia
78s, was coupled with a side of Gluck, entitled Melodie, adapted
from his opera "Orphée", again with ven der Pas at the
keyboard. We have made this available in our Shorter
Pieces section.
REVIEW
OF:Schubert
"Arpeggione" Sonata (Moore, 1937) and
Brahms: Cello Sonata #1 (van der Pas, 1934)
Emanuel
Feuermann (1902-1942) was almost universally recognized
during his brief lifetime as an unrivaled master of the cello.
Artur Rubinstein said "Feuermann became for me the greatest
cellist of all time". Jascha Heifetz accepted him as
the first cellist worthy of serious collaboration, and would
not play with another for nine years after his death. He was
the cellist of choice for Toscanini, who described him as
"the greatest" and said that "there is no one
after him".
No
cellist, not Casals, not Rostropovich, conveys for me the
fire, the passion, the lyricism and the virtuosity of Feuermann.
To me, his ur-recording is the great Brahms Double Concerto
with Heifetz and Ormandy (1939) which has been my favorite
for half a century. He died from easily preventable complications
of a very minor surgery at age 39. His recordings are not
many.
What
is the nature of his greatness? It is not unlike that of Heifetz
or Toscanini. Impeccable command and virtuosity go without
saying. It is the underlying intensity--whether forte or piano
or lyrical or martial, there is always the intensity of a
musical life and sensibility that is always probing. There
is no routine; every phrase, every note is informed with a
vital spirit. Every note is pregnant with the next. Nothing
is routine; nothing is repeated the same way. And there is
the plangent tone--a bit thin and nervous compared to Rostropovich
or Casals--that can either caress or whiplash, depending on
the musical requirement. And how does one hear soft playing
with such expression and underlying tension?
Suffice
it to say that Feuermann knows how to be playful and dance
as he does in the Schubert "Arpeggione" sonata.
He opens the sonata with a light, somewhat sec tone, which
announces that this is an early, light romantic work and not
the C Major Quintet. He does not make heavy weather of the
development, but keeps its dancing. Moore, perhaps the greatest
accompanist who ever lived, is one with him. Feuermann's tone
is a bit richer in the the lovely second movement, but he
does not lean on the themes to exaggerate their importance.
In the third movement, we are back to loose-limbed, insouciant
joy.
In
the Brahms, Feuermann begins the first theme a bit
subdued with a mezzo tone that, without moving to doubleforte,
conveys struggle and anxiety. There are flashes of rebellion
but mood is more melancholy than tragic or angry. The tone
is much brightened for the second movement, but there is still
a hint of sadness hanging over it all. The articulatulation
is very precise and the lovely sinuous second theme is played
without the romantic afflatus that Rostropovich or Piatiagorsky
brings to it. Feuerman is supreme in the knotty, contrapuntal
third movement. He is everywhere at once commanding things.
He makes the most of the lyric episodes to leaven this, one
of Brahms' toughest textures.
The
sound, while somewhat unresonant, is infinitely adequate to
to convey the Fireman's gold.
Reviewer:
Bill Rosen
Find
out more:
Second
movement Allegretto quasi Menuetto; and Trio
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