YSAŸE
Sonata for Cello Solo.
JONGEN
Sonata for Cello & Piano
•
Wesley Baldwin (vc); Christy Lee (pn)
•
CENTAUR 2649 (59:35)
This is not a particularly new recording, having been taped in December 2001, in the LSU Recital Hall at Louisiana State University. It is, however, a particularly welcome one in that neither of the works on the disc—each a real gem—is that widely known outside of cello circles, though it surely deserves to be. A more recent recording of the Ysaÿe solo cello sonata performed by Erling Blondal Bengtsson on Danacord mates it with the three unaccompanied cello suites, op. 131c, by Reger, sensible enough, I suppose, as polygamous marriages go, but not as sensible as the more monogamous match-up between the Ysaÿe and the Jongen on this disc.
Another recording of the Ysaÿe with cellist Raphael Wallfisch on Cello Classics is almost as sensible in its mating as is the current offering in that it includes works by two composers, Franck and Lekeu, who dedicated their violin sonatas to Ysaÿe. But sensibility is stretched by Wallfisch’s inclusion of Lekeu’s cello sonata, which wasn’t completed by him but by d’Indy after Lekeu’s death, and which has no connection to Ysaÿe; and by the cello transcription of Franck’s famous violin sonata, which isn’t by Franck, though having been transcribed by famed cellist Jules Delsart with Franck’s knowledge, has greater legitimacy than an arrangement for flute that’s had a recent airing or two.
The Jongen sonata has had even less exposure on disc, the release at hand being only one of two currently listed. Thanks largely to the composer’s Symphony Concertante for Organ and Orchestra, op. 81, and more specifically its Toccata movement, Jongen has come to be thought of primarily as an organist, which he was, and primarily as an organ composer, which he wasn’t. As noted in a
Fanfare
32:6 review of a Jongen string quartet, a quick glance at his work list will confirm that by far the bulk of his output consists of chamber music—sonatas for various instruments with piano, string quartets, piano quartets, piano trios, songs, a mass, a large volume of pieces for solo piano—and concerted orchestral works, including concertos for cello and harp, and a suite for viola. Both Ysaÿe and Jongen have Belgian birth and ancestry in common, as for that matter do Franck and Lekeu.
Familiarity with Ysaÿe’s solo violin sonatas may be helpful in setting listeners’ expectations for his solo cello sonata. The work was completed in 1924, the very year the violin sonatas were published, but the cello sonata had occupied the composer for a number of years prior. Much of the same dissonant chording, freely spun-out counterpoint, and emotive rhapsodizing are collectively shared by these closely related works. Nothing is quite as austere or as dryly academic as is sometimes heard in similar works by Reger. Ysaÿe’s sonata may take two or three hearings to appreciate fully, but Wesley Baldwin’s playing of it makes the effort both pleasurable and rewarding.
Though as mentioned above at least one other recording of the Jongen sonata is listed, this was my first encounter with the piece, and frankly, I was bowled over by it. It’s incomprehensible to me that more cellists have not taken up this sonata as the major contribution to the cello repertoire it surely is. Here is a genuine masterpiece that could and should receive significant attention; yet instead, what we get are more recordings of the Brahms sonatas, arrangements of pieces not even originally written for cello, and programs made up of encore pieces. I’m tempted to put the question to all the well-known cellists out there: What’s wrong with you people?
The Jongen sonata was completed in 1913 and dedicated to Pablo Casals. It was performed and approvingly received a number of times before the outbreak of World War I, after which, for all practical purposes, it was never heard from again. The piece is a large-scale work in three very substantial movements. The first movement alone, marked
Agité
, is 18 minutes in duration, making it the longest first movement to a cello sonata I know. When you add another 11 minutes for the
Légèrement animè
, and 15 minutes more for the
Recitativo e Finale
, you have a 44-minute work that exceeds the length of many concertos and symphonies.
But it’s not only length that makes Jongen’s sonata a large-scale work; it’s the musical content, which is laid out and developed with Beethoven’s skill for motivic elaboration and Brahms’s ear for textural richness and harmonic complexity. Given its date of composition, its geographical locus, and its cultural milieu, it’s not surprising to hear in the score the melodic, rhythmic, and chromatic fluidity of Fauré, but Jongen’s music strikes me as less redolent of French perfume than of an aromatic German beer, which is not to say that anyone would mistake this sonata for a piece by Brahms, or by any German composer for that matter, but Jongen’s whole approach to his materials and their manipulation has a symphonic heft and feel to it that echo Franck in one or two of his massive chamber works like his D-Major String Quartet and F-Minor Piano Quintet.
The uncredited booklet note author (perhaps cellist Baldwin) describes the harmonic language as “impressionistic,” with a small “i,” which I think sets it apart from what we tend to think of as the capital “I” Impressionism of Debussy. By any measure, Jongen’s cello sonata is a major work in a category of works that already suffers from a fairly limited repertoire, though what there is of it is judged to be of exceptionally high quality. Jongen’s contribution affirms that judgment, and Wesley Baldwin is due much gratitude for bringing a long-neglected work to our attention. The piece and its performance by Baldwin and pianist Christy Lee is drop-dead gorgeous. This would have been Want List material had it not been a recording that dates back to 2001. Nevertheless, it receives an urgent recommendation.
Jerry Dubins
