Cello Sonata No. 2 in D, Op. 58 (Mendelssohn)
Movements
i Allegro assai vivace, ii Allegretto scherzando (in B minor), iii Adagio (in G major), iv Molto allegro e vivace
Notes
Felix Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58, was composed in late 1842. The main theme of the first movement is a reworking of an unrealised Piano Sonata in G major. The Cello Sonata, which was dedicated to the Russian/Polish cellist Count Mateusz Wielhorski, has four movements.
Of particular interest is the Adagio, because it mirrors Mendelssohn’s fascination with the music of J. S. Bach. (He was then musical director of the Gewandhaus concerts at Leipzig and, as such, Bach’s distant successor.) The movement consists of a chorale in Bach’s typical style, played by the piano in rich arpeggios. In between the phrases of the chorale, the cello plays recitative-like passages, which resemble the recitative of the Fantasia in the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903, and quotes its final passage.