Major Miniatures for Cello and Piano
January 22, 2025By Nicky Swett
Though the cello began to establish a firm identity as a soloistic instrument in the 19th century, it was only in the middle of the 20th that the sheer proficiency of cellists began to truly rival the virtuoso skill that violinists had displayed since the days of Niccolò Paganini. New, ambitious concertos and sonatas were written for the likes of Pierre Fournier, Gregor Piatigorsky, and Mstislav Rostropovich. But another genre consolidated alongside these multi-movement forms: demanding, expressive standalone works for cello and piano that artfully blend sweet singing with dancing up and down the instrument. Let’s call them “major miniatures”: they’re longer than five minutes but shorter than twelve. On this Sonic Spectrum concert, we hear Lickety Split, a capricious, witty piece by Carlos Simon. This playlist brings together other pieces in this mold, written from the 1940s to the present day.
Cellist, writer, and music researcher Nicky Swett is a program annotator and editorial contributor at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.