Cello Sonata

Frédéric Chopin’s lone Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, which occupied him from late 1845 until June 1847, did not come easily. He began working on it just when his long and complex relationship with George Sand was falling apart. Despite a promising start Chopin soon confessed, “Sometimes I am satisfied with my cello sonata, sometimes not. I throw it aside and then take it up again.” It was his first and only attempt at a duo sonata. Hence the influence of other “voices”—particularly Schumann and Mendelssohn—is more apparent than in contemporaneous piano solo works, where Chopin’s individual style had already taken root.
The Cello Sonata’s deep motivic interconnections belie a highly unified, organic conception of structure across four movements. Chopin’s truncated sonata form (i.e., the first theme is not recapitulated) helps keep the first movement taut and dramatically interesting. In second position he placed a scherzo flavored by touches of a mazurka, another genre he had personally cultivated. The Largo is both elegiac and contrapuntally sophisticated, while the rousing finale—a modified sonata-rondo without development—revels in chromaticism and virtuoso flair.
There is no inherent reason why Chopin could not have written a handful of chamber works along these lines. His decision not to explore such ensembles seems curious given his penchant for bel canto lyricism and his clear command of melody and accompaniment textures. A clue perhaps lies in this very achievement: his sense of genuine fulfillment via solo keyboard composition. Whatever the reason, Chopin’s Cello Sonata must be regarded as far more than a token gesture to the genres of chamber music. Its influence can be followed to later generations, in particular to similar sonatas penned by Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. Chopin likely would have contributed more to the chamber repertoire had he lived longer. Among sketches for the Cello Sonata, his last published composition, are drafts of a work for violin and piano.

(c) Jason Stell