Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach, Donald Francis Tovey
Performer: Alice Neary, Kate Gould, Gretel Dowdeswell
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0497
Release: 2022
Size: 855 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Tovey: Sonata for 2 Cellos in G major
01. I. Allegro vivace
02. II. Andante maestoso e sostenuto
03. III. Presto giocoso
04. Bach: Prelude in C Minor, BWV 999 (Arr. D.F. Tovey for Cello & Piano)
Tovey: Sonata for Solo Cello in D major, Op. 30
05. I. Allegro con brio ma largamente
06. II. Allegretto, un poco agitato, ma sempre piano
07. III. Passacaglia
Tovey: Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 4
08. I. Allegrissimo
09. II. Andante cantabile
10. III. Finale. Vivace giocoso ma non presto
Sir Donald Tovey (1875-1940), long hailed as one of the finest writers on music in English, saw himself primarily as a composer. His occasionally turbulent friendship with Pau Casals was the spur for a monumental concerto and one of his three Cello Sonatas: for solo cello, two cellos and cello with piano. The cello was the ideal instrument for Tovey’s Brahmsian musical language, with its long, singing lines unfolding in effortless counterpoint – though the huge passacaglia that ends the Solo Sonata also demands a virtuoso technique. The brief Bach arrangement recorded here for the first time arose when the twelve-year-old Tovey added a cello line to one of Bach’s best-known preludes, originally for lute.