In memory of Christopher Rowland. Originally a concerto for Cello and chamber orchestra now for Cello with a Piano reduction of the orchestral part.The concerto is in four movements which are played without a break: Meditation Intermezzo Toccata-Scherzo and Song. The work lasts for some 18 minutes and was scored for two oboes two horns timpani (doubling tubular bells) and strings(found here in a Cello/Piano form). It is organised in one large arch-shaped structure with two fast inner movements flanked by two outer slow ones. The solo cello opens the work reflectively and introduces core melodic material which is continuously developed throughout theconcerto. Gradually the strings enter then wind and timpani and build a pyramid twelve-note chord at the peak of which there is a dramatic climax. The music then subsides (solo cello again) but links to the two faster middle movements. The second movement Intermezzo has an ABA structure and in its middle section quotes the opening of Shostakovich's Third String Quartet (written in the same year as Christopher Rowland was born!). Indeed the ghost of Shostakovich looms large throughout the concerto in more ways than one. The Toccata-Scherzo is energetic and rhythmically-charged again using an ABA structure. Here the writing for solo cello is quite virtuosic but not I hope in a shallow sense. The music builds inexorably towards a powerful climax underpinned by the opening twelve-note chord's re-appearance together with a violent outburst from the timpani at which point a tonal resolution (on G) arrives through a pianissimo held chord on strings which leads directly to the final movement - Song. And so the music arrives at its emotional heart through a simple melody (present in other forms throughout the work) announced by solo cello at the very top of its register against a quiet backdrop of horns and strings. A solo oboe enters with cello in canonic reply and all the time the music builds in texture and

Par SCHNEIDER FRIEDRICH. Friedrich Schneider is known today above all for his extensive oeuvre in the area of the oratorio. No less important, however, in addition to his symphonic work, is his group of works for piano and/or chamber music. His cello sonata in F major, with all four movements large in scale, was probably composed in 1831 for the daughter of the Cologne music patron, Dr. Erich Heinrich Verkenius. With its expressiveness, monumental structure, and post-Beethovenian sensuality, this sonata already seriously anticipates Romanticism. Our edition offers two solo parts: an unmarked original text as well as a version with fingerings and bowings by the Leipzig based cellist Jürnjakob Timm./ Répertoire / Violoncelle et Piano

for Violoncello and Piano with marked and unmarked string part-The ?Romance sans paroles dédiée Mlle. Lise Christiani? thus described in the surviving autograph was only published as op. 109 from the composer?s estate in 1868. The French cellist Lise Christiani gave several concerts inLeipzig in October 1845 where she met with Mendelssohn and presumably commissioned him to write this charming work. It is the only ?Song without words? that Mendelssohn wrote for two instruments not piano solo. It was previouslyonly available as part of a collection of works for this instrumentation (HN 669). However the ?Romance sans paroles? a favourite with cellists is now also available as a single Henle Urtext edition.