Rohan De Saram Arnold BAX (1883–1953) 1 Rhapsodic Ballad [14:27]

BAX • CASSADÓ DALLAPICCOLA LIGETI works for solo cello Rohan de Saram Arnold BAX (1883–1953) 1 Rhapsodic Ballad [14:27] György LIGETI (1923–2006) Sonata for Solo Cello [8:41] 2 I. Dialogo [4:38] 3 II. Capriccio [3:59] Luigi DALLAPICCOLA (1904–1975) Ciaccona, Intermezzo e Adagio [18:35] 4 I. Ciaccona: Con larghezza [8:28] 5 II. Intermezzo: Allegro, con espressione drastica [2:38] 6 III. Adagio [7:25] Gaspar CASSADÓ (1897–1966) Suite for Solo Cello [16:21] 7 I. Preludio – Fantasia [6:06] 8 II. Sardana (Danza) [3:58] 9 III. Intermezzo e Danza finale [6:14] Total Timing: [58:11] ̶ 2 ̶ BAX • CASSADÓ • DALLAPICCOLA • LIGETI BAX • CASSADÓ works for solo cello The present album features four works which have come to gave the world premiere near Cork in May 1966. Technically the forefront of repertoire for solo cello from the modern era. its demands are considerable, while the range of emotions It may be significant that only one of the pieces was written encountered frequently puts one in mind of Bax’s symphonic by a composer who was also a practising cellist, though this is works from the 1930s. Formally, too, this piece ranks among not to imply any lack of technical expertise or musical insight the composer’s most individual, integrating its contrasted on the part of the other three. On the contrary, each of Bax, sections into an unbroken continuity. Ligeti and Dallapiccola enjoyed close contact with a leading exponent in their respective countries (England, Hungary and The work begins with a rhetorical gesture that denotes the Italy), which no doubt encouraged them to push the technical serious nature of what is to follow, though this strenuous limits of the instrument into new and hitherto unexplored manner is soon tempered with more speculative and equivocal regions. The outcome is a selection that provides a plausible writing – hence the recourse to (relative) extremes of register overview of writing for the cello during the mid-twentieth and bursts of pizzicato strumming that suggest images archaic century and which continues to exert a crucial influence on or even primal. The composer weaves these contrasting composers and players through to the present. motifs into a finely balanced entity, the ‘rhapsodic’ element arguably one of expression rather than form. The ‘ballad’ Arnold Bax (1883–1953) wrote extensively for cello over the aspect is more tangible, given the strophic succession which course of his career, though the Rhapsodic Ballad is his only proves greater as a whole than as the sum of the judiciously solo piece for this instrument. Completed on 3 June 1939, it contrasted episodes. Towards the close, the music takes on was intended for Beatrice Harrison (who, along with her sister added eloquence as it approaches a heightened resolution May, was a leading exponent of his music), but for whatever of the tensions that have informed its progress; the salient reason she never performed it and the work fell into obscurity motifs again encountered prior to an anguished conclusion. following the outbreak of the Second World War – remaining unheard until it was relocated by Bernard Vocadlo, who Although it is likely the most often performed of his earlier ̶ 3 ̶ ̶ ̶ 3 ̶ works, the Sonata for Solo Cello by György Ligeti (1923–2006) later work of Bartók (whose advocacy of Baroque keyboard had a protracted genesis. The first movement dates from composers such as Frescobaldi was evidently shared by his 1948, when the composer was studying at Budapest Academy, successor), the music exudes an energy and impetus which and it was offered to fellow student Annuss Virány who never goes on unabated – occasionally disrupted by brief pauses played it. In 1953 Ligeti was approached by the cellist Vera or sudden hushed phrases, though with an unwavering Dénes and, deciding the piece was too short on its own, conviction which is amply maintained right through to the wrote a second movement complementing it in every respect. decisive conclusion. On the grounds this latter was too modern, the Communist- run Composers’ Union refused permission for performance; Ciaconna, Intermezzo e Adagio was completed in September though Dénes recorded it for radio, this was never broadcast, 1945, while Luigi Dallapiccola (1904–1975) was engaged and the piece remained unheard until 1979. Since then, it has upon his anti-fascist opera Il prigionero (The Prisoner). That established itself in the repertoire and for over a decade as a piece is notable for its composer’s having evolved a manner test piece for the Rostropovich Competition in Paris. of serial writing which is more akin to Berg than Schoenberg or Webern, and the present work follows suit in terms of The first movement Dialogo was written at a time when Ligeti its emphasis on long melodic lines and the tendency to was concerned to make his music accessible to a wide public imply tonal referents in spite (or even because?) of the high and thus betrays the presence of folk music as influenced by degree of harmonic dissonance. Certainly, each of the three Kodály (then the pre-eminent Hungarian composer, whose movements pursues an underlying key-centre as is made own Sonata for Solo Cello was considered to be the most explicit at the close. Also notable is the density of motivic important such piece since Bach’s Cello Suites). Predominantly evolution which early on had marked out Dallapiccola from spare and inward, its opening cantilena is punctuated by his contemporaries, and which increased exponentially once Bartókian pizzicato gestures such as offset any hint of more he started incorporating serial techniques into his composing. sustained emotional progress. That said, a Bachian eloquence is not far beneath the surface – thus making contrast with the The Ciaconna begins with granitic chords that presently second movement the more striking. Entitled Capriccio and subside, and from which follow a succession of variations inspired by the solo violin caprices of Paganini as well as the that treat the theme in unexpected and resourceful ways. Of ̶ 4 ̶ especial note is the emphasis on extremes of dynamic, most also left a substantial output for his instrument of mainly notably when the music seems intent on withdrawing into near shorter works, including numerous transcriptions (several of silence only to re-emerge with renewed force – as happens which were musical ‘hoaxes’) and what might be described as during the fervent closing bars. After this, the Intermezzo ‘pastiche concertos’ which draw on such composers as C.P.E. tends toward a more sardonic and capricious manner – one Bach, Schubert and Tchaikovsky. His most significant works that places even greater emphasis on virtuosity as a means are the Concerto in D minor, whose Spanish and Oriental of characterisation. The Adagio is the most profound of these influences have been filtered through the impressionism of movements, not least for the way that it conveys depth of Ravel, and the present solo Cello Suite – composed in the mid- emotion through essential inwardness and restraint. It is also 1920s and championed by successive generations of cellists a telling demonstration of the expressive possibilities that the from János Starker to Alisa Weilerstein. composer found in his highly personal take on serial writing; one that focusses less on the systematic unfolding of pitches The first movement, a Preludio – Fantasia in the style of a than on the harmonic subtleties which can be teased out sarabande, commences in grandly rhetorical fashion, with a from their diverse combinations. This is particularly true of finely wrought melodic line which maintains focus and even the concluding stages, when the cello softly returns to those gains intensity as the music opens-out in terms of technique chords with which it opened. and expression prior to its ruminative conclusion. The second movement, titled Sardana (a circular dance popular in the Dallapiccola’s composition was written for the Spanish cellist Spanish region of Catalonia, where it was banned after the Gaspar Cassadó (1897–1966), whose earlier career was fascist victory of General Franco in 1939), immediately exhibits overseen by Pablo Casals, though the pair became estranged a folk-like inflection to its harmonies (oddly reminiscent, when Cassadó performed in Italy after Mussolini had come moreover, of the hardanger fiddle music from southern to power. Despite this, Cassadó went on to become one Norway which exerted such a lasting influence on Grieg), of the leading cellists during the mid-twentieth century such as continues through more ingratiating passages and on and made a substantial recorded legacy. A not inconsiderable to the closing flourish. The third movement, an Intermezzo e composer, whose output includes choral music as well as Danza Finale, visits completely different emotional territory, three string quartets and several pieces for guitar, Cassadó as it proceeds from introspective musing to robust rhythmic ̶ 5 ̶ Rohan de Saram and Gaspar Cassadó in Colombo, Ceylon, 1953. Cassadó had announced from the stage that he would give the best possible encore, whereupon the 13-year-old came on and performed Massenet’s Elegy with Cassadó accompanying on the piano ̶ 6 ̶ writing in the style of a jota – the two musical types being whose musical director was Geraint Jones. dovetailed into each other with impressive consistency, until this latter gradually assumes dominance to bring the whole On 2 May 1979, I was asked to give what turned out to be work to its propulsive close. the first public performance of György Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Cello at the English Bach Festival at the Purcell Room. This is © 2019 Richard Whitehouse mentioned in two biographies of Ligeti, by Richard Steinitz (pub.

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