The cello sonatas of Richard Strauss and Ludwig Thuille make a natural if little-encountered pairing. They were boyhood friends in Munich, both from educated and highly cultivated families. Thuille was the elder, and for some years guide to Strauss, though even then it was clear both to them and their friends and family who was the more naturally, even prodigiously gifted musician. On both of these sonatas, Brahms exerts an unmistakable influence, but their composers were at very different points of life when they were composed. Strauss was still a teenager and thanks to his father’s prohibition had yet to discover the music of Wagner when he wrote this three-movement Romantic sonata which is so full of yearning melody and unstoppable momentum.
Works:
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Strauss, R: Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 6
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Strauss, R: Romance for cello & orchestra in F major, AV 75
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Strauss, R: Romance for cello and piano in F Major, AV 75
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Thuille: Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor, Op. 22