Concerts
Christian Poltéra and Kathryn Stott
Monday 14th December 2009 at 7.30pm
Christian Poltéra (cello), Kathryn Stott (piano)
Beethoven Sonata in G minor Op. 5 No. 2
Saint-Saëns Sonata No. 1 in C minor Op. 32
Brahms Sonata No. 2 in F major Op. 99
‘There seems to be quite a lot of understatement at play when a chamber concert casually announced as an “Evening of Cello Music” turns out to be a musical event of the highest order … warmest thanks to Christian Poltéra and Kathryn Stott who commended themselves both as congenial partners and as creators of virtuosic and sensitive musical landscapes.’ Westfalen-Blatt
The engaging new artistic director of MCCS, Kathryn Stott joins former BBC New Generation Artist Christian Poltéra in what promises to be one of the highlights of the season. Over the last five years Christian Poltéra and Kathryn Stott have toured and recorded extensively together to outstanding critical acclaim and this programme presents some of their favourite repertoire for cello and piano.
Though dating from the composer’s early period, Beethoven’s G minor Sonata gives us more than a glimpse of the stormy revolutionary to come. Even more turbulent is Saint-Saëns’s Sonata No. 1, a work in which the composer mourned the loss of a favourite relative and lamented France’s military defeat by Prussia in 1870. Brahms’s masterly Sonata in F major was written amid glorious lakeside surroundings. Its dramatic first movement eventually leads to a sunny and pastoral finale, music inspired by a cheerful German folk tune.