Mendelssohn - Sonata in D, Op. 58 - Cello and Piano

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy composed three large-scale works for piano and cello: the Variations (op. 17) and the ) and the Sonatas in B-flat (op. 45) and D major (op. 58). The Variations originated as early as 1829 and were published by Mechetti of Vienna as Variations concer-tants [sic] pour le Pianoforte et Violon-celle in 1831. Mendelssohn dedicated the piece to his brother Paul, an accom-plished if amateur cellist. Years passed before Mendelssohn again returned to this combination of instruments. Writ-ing from Berlin on 17 August 1838, he alluded to the First Cello Sonata in a letter to his friend Ferdinand Hiller: “Moreover, a quite important branch of piano music of which I am very fond – trios, quartets and other things with pi-ano accompaniment, which is to say genuine chamber music – has been very far from my thoughts, and my need to write something new along these lines is very great. I would be happy to do something about it. It was with this in mind that I recently wrote a