Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor, Op19: I. Lento - Allegro moderato

LIGHT AND SHADOW
This is a program of contrasts: cello and piano, Rachmaninov and Poulenc, light and shadow. Working in very different idioms, both composers grapple with darkness but do not yield to it.
The Rachmaninov sonata, composed in 1901 after a long bout of severe depression, is rich with the heritage of Romanticism. The composer was in love; you hear it especially in the slow movement. The work takes us through his emotional turmoil but ends triumphantly. Poulenc's mid-century sonata is mostly in his light-hearted, unsentimental vein; it evokes a party atmosphere, ironic in the context of the Nazi occupation of France and the atrocities of World War II.
There are superficial similarities. Both sonatas are unique in the composers’ output. Rachmaninov had written a couple of smaller works for cello and piano, but this is his only sonata; Poulenc’s is all he wrote for the combination. Both works have four movements, instead of the typical three. Both were written for specific cellists. More significantly, both challenge the cello’s conventional role in this partnership.
Cellist Anatoly Brandukov, to whom Rachmaninov’s sonata is dedicated and with whom he performed it, advised the composer on how to write for the instrument. The work was the first significant Russian cello sonata to enter the standard repertory. It has been criticized for favoring the piano at the expense of the cello -- various published sources identify it as for either “cello and piano” or “piano and cello” -- but Rachmaninov knew what he wanted. The piano was not intended as mere accompaniment. He was a virtuoso pianist himself, and the keyboard writing is opulent. The cello’s melody line often soars above a sea of piano figuration, and some extended passages omit the cello altogether. There is wit, but no irony; Rachmaninov’s music is unashamedly “expressive” of the composer’s subjective feelings, and is intended to arouse the listener’s with equal intensity.
Poulenc roared with the Twenties in Paris as one of “Les Six,” a group of young composers who repudiated the Romanticism of the pre-World War I era. Their music was light-hearted, jazz-inflected, nose-thumbing. But in 1936 Poulenc returned to the Catholicism of his youth; from then on, while continuing to write music in his earlier style, he also composed in a more serious vein, including settings of religious texts. During the occupation he took significant risks associating with the Resistance and left- wing organizations. He worked on his sonata from 1940 to 1948 and dedicated it to the great French cellist Pierre Fournier, who (as Brandukov did for Rachmaninov) advised him on technical matters. Poulenc didn’t quite approve of the cello; he said that “nothing is further from the human breath than the stroke of a bow.” His cello writing here is often intentionally unidiomatic, as if imagining a wind instrument. While much of the piece sounds like the insouciant Poulenc of the “Les Six” years -- notably the “extra” movement, the Ballabile, a ballet term meaning “danceable” -- in some gently melancholy passages you sense nostalgia for a lost world, the world between the wars.
Rachmaninov and Poulenc seem an improbable pair, and these sonatas sound nothing alike. But together they tell us much about the century in which they were written, and the paths that music took during its turbulent first half.
Notes by Zeke Hecker


Cellist Rebecca Hartka has concertized for over a decade in venues throughout the United States as well as making international appearances in Italy, Vietnam, and Thailand. Hartka's playing was described by the Hanoi Times as "... no less than magical and eloquent." Committed to building bridges through performance and transcending classical music stereotypes, Hartka has performed in nontraditional venues such as Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Hampshire County Jail, numerous coffee houses and private homes, and such prestigious venues as the American Embassy in Hanoi. In 2013-14 Hartka was artist faculty in Arcidosso, Italy for the Interharmony International Music Festival, collaborating with pianists Inesa Sinkevych and Svetlana Gorokhovich, baritone Aurelius Gori, and flutist Laurel Zucker. She performs regularly with the Wistaria String Quartet and with pianist Alys Terrien-Queen. She has appeared recently as a solo recitalist in the Frederick Historical Piano Collection Concert Series, Wistaria Chamber Music Society Concerts at 7, Classics in the Woods, North Quabbin Center for the Arts Series, Community Connections Concert Series, and Valley Classic Concerts Series. Her debut CD Folkfire with pianist Azusa Komiyama, released in October 2010, received critical acclaim as well as National Public Radio play, including a feature on Paul Elisha's Performance Place. As a Deans Scholar, Hartka earned her Doctorate of Musical Arts and Masters in Music from Boston University College of Fine Arts, and her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Oberlin College and Conservatory. She has studied with Andor Toth, Michael Reynolds, Rhonda Rider, and Leslie Parnas.

Pianist Alys Terrien-Queen has shared her manifold talents with audiences and students throughout the United States. Trained at Juilliard, New England Conservatory, and Tanglewood with Ania Dorfmann, Jacob Maxin, and Gilbert Kalish, she has created innovative programs and ensembles featuring a wide range of classical and contemporary works. She toured for ten years as co-founder of the ONYX chamber ensemble, and her recording with soprano Maria Ferrante was hailed as “superb” by The Boston Globe. A charismatic performer, she has concertized with period instruments, premiered challenging new works, and played duo-piano concerts and programs with dancers. She has taught at New England Conservatory, Longy School of Music, Wheaton College, and in her own studio. She has published and lectured nationally on music learning and practice. Looking ahead, Terrien-Queen says “I like to help audiences find the light and shadow of familiar and lesser-known works through following the composer’s journey.”
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