BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND 1958-1959 FIRST RECITAL under the auspices of THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST PAUL TORTELIER Violoncello ERNEST LUSH Pianoforte ★ SIR WILLIAM WHITLA HALL Queen's University, Belfast FRIDAY, 3rd OCTOBER, 1958 at 7.45 p.m.

Sonata in A Minor (Arpeggione) D.821 Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Allegro Adagio Allegretto Rondo (Written in 1824, first published in 1871). Schubert wrote this sonata for an Arpeggione (also known as a Guitare d'amour), an instrument resembling the Viola da Gamba and recently intro- duced into Vienna and popularized by a leading cellist of the day. It had six strings and a fretted key-board. There was obviously not much future in writing for an instrument of which only one player ever seems to have been master and the sonata had a cello part written in ad libitum. It has remained popular in various arrangements. The first movement is gracefully Schubertian with a pleasing melancholy; a short connecting adagio leads to a finale which is something between a rondo and a divertissement. Schubert made full use of the great range of the instrument, but not of its potentialities for double-stopping and chordal playing. Suite No. 6 in D Major for solo violoncello Prelude Allemande Courante Sarabande Gavottes I and II Gigue Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) About 1720 Bach wrote two sets of six suites each for un- accompanied violin and cello respectively. Previously much of the harmonization of music had been left to the performer and Bach is known to have been concerned with the problem of establishing his own harmonic intentions definitely without leaving it to the player. These sonatas were written when he had this problem in mind. The polyphonic demands he makes on the player of a stringed instrument are staggering and make these works among the supreme tests of a player's technique. This one of the cello sonatas was written for an instrument with five strings, which is inferred to have been a viola pomposa, an instrument which Bach himself is said to have invented. PEA 38 INTERVAL

Sonata in F Major, Op. 99 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Allegro vivace Adagio affettuoso Allegro passionato Allegro molto Written in 1887, this sonata disturbed contemporary listeners because of what they considered unorthodoxies in key relationship. In fact parallels to what they complained of could be found in Haydn, but Brahms brought them uncompromisingly to the fore. To our ears they merely sound appropriate to the great sense of vigour and stress that permeates this work. It has little of the lyrical ease of the violin and piano sonatas, one of which, Op. 108 in D minor, will be heard in a later concert this season. The first movement contains some interesting experiments in tremolo for both instruments. Listeners can judge for themselves whether the slow movement is to be classed as supremely lovely music, or in the words of a contemporary critic "a dangerous and radical innovation" just because it was in the unexpected key of F sharp. The third movement is characterized by a perpetual quaver motion, its extreme freedom of transient modulation and its cross rhythms within the bar. The last is genial and boisterous. 750

Next Concerts : PASQUIER STRING TRIO Friday, 17th October, 1958 Three Fantasies Trio in B flat, D 581 Trio (Dedicated to the Pasquier Trio) Trio in C minor, Op. 9, No. 3 CARMEN PRIETTO and HUBERT DAWKES Per la gloria D'Adoravi Cosi Amor mi fai languir Nel cor non piu mi sento Der Jungling an der Quelle Lachen und Weinen Du bist die Ruh Nacht und Traume Beau soir; Mandoline: Des fleurs Suite Canciones Group of songs Gibbons Schubert Roussel Beethoven Bononcini Stradella Paisiello Schubert Debussy De Falla Granados