DESCRIPTION:
Sonata for cello & orchestra (1964)

I. Movement 1
II. Movement 2 (6:40)

Ivan Monighetti, cello

Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra
Antoni Wit

Penderecki composed the Sonata for Cello and Orchestra in 1964, and was given its première later that year by Siegfried Palm with the South-West German Radio Symphony Orchestra and Ernest Bour. All of the composer's earlier such pieces are relatively lightweight affairs: the Sonata was followed by two Capriccios (for oboe and violin) and, like those, leavens its virtuosity with ironic and even playful qualities unusual for contemporary music of this period. There are two short but highly contrasted movements.

The first movement pursues a gradual opening-out of the material shared by soloist and orchestra, and with the sustained writing of the former pitted against increasingly dissonant chord sequences from the latter. Any more substantial discourse between the two is prevented by the gestural nature of the musical ideas. After the glowering climax has receded beyond earshot, the closing movement is launched with sardonic gestures from the soloist, extended by non-tuned percussion and a plethora of effects in the strings. This activity fairly propels the music forward to its aggressive but by no means humourless ending.

--Richard Whitehouse

Art by Aleksandra Ekster