Sibbe Live!: Duo Evening

At this duo concert, two sonatas for cello and piano will be performed, both belonging to the early compositional periods of Ludwig van Beethoven and Richard Strauss.

Beethoven’s first two cello sonatas were composed during his performance tour in Berlin in 1796, and they are dedicated to the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm II. Of these, the second sonata in G minor, Op. 5 No. 2, which will be performed here, is more dramatic than the first sonata in F major. This two-movement sonata begins with a slow, contemplative introduction that transitions into a fast main section. It starts with a melancholic sway but soon plunges into intense drama. The final movement in G major, written in rondo form, is full of energy and virtuosity.

Richard Strauss’s cello sonata, composed when he was just 19, follows the traditional three-movement structure: fast–slow–fast. The first movement, Allegro con brio, begins with energetic grandeur, contrasted by a gentle secondary theme. The second movement, Andante ma non troppo, feels like a serious and mature composition from an older composer, while the third movement, Allegro vivo, highlights the playfulness that characterizes Strauss’s musical language. In his first manuscript, Strauss added a verse by Austrian poet Franz Grillparzer:

Music, the eloquent,
is at the same time silent.
Keeping quiet about the individual,
She gives us the whole universe.