Leonard Elschenbroich / Alexei Grynyuk BEETHOVEN Sonatas for Cello and Piano

The five cello sonatas span Beethoven’s three creative periods, with the audacious op.5 sonatas dating from the early years on his time in Vienna as a piano virtuoso and aspiring composer (1792-9), the great op.69 sonata is from the period that saw the composition of symphonies 4-8, the violin concerto, Mass in C and the String Quartets op59. The two op102 sonatas are from the cusp of the ‘late’ period, this is the time of the 9th Symphony, the Missa Solemnis, the great string quartets op127 – 135 and the last five piano sonatas.

The cello and piano are truly equal partners in all these works, and Beethoven exploited the full range of the cello placing great demands on the player. The op.17 sonatas from the 1790s was composed for horn and piano. The transcription is believed to be by the composer, or at least approved by him.

Roberto Fabbriciani LUCA LOMBARDI Music for Solo Flute

Luca Lombardi, born December 24, 1945 in Rome. He studied piano and composition in Rome, Florence, Vienna, Cologne and Berlin, among others with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bernd-Alois Zimmermann and Paul Dessau. He earned a PhD in German Language and Literature at Rome University. From 1973 to 1993 he taught composition at the Conservatories of Pesaro and Milan.

He wrote more than 160 compositions, including four operas (Faust. Un travestimento, 1991; Dmitri oder der Künstler und die Macht, 2000; Prospero, 2006; Il Re nudo, 2009), music for orchestra (among which Terra, 2007 and Mare, 2012), chamber music (among which Warum? Secondo quartetto per archi, 2006) and for solo instruments (among which Nel vento, con Ariel for flute, 2004).

In the 1980s Luca Lombardi met the flutist Roberto Fabbriciani whose artistry inspired many of his flute compositions.
This CD represents a variety in all the pieces and a diverse collection of flute instruments played by Roberto Fabbriciani, ranging from the earliest manifestations of Lombardi´s muse to pieces with special sound effects giving voice to human expression.
In the pieces Nel vento, con ariel and the Einstein-Dialog the sound of the solo flute is captured by the timbre of a solo cello, played by cellist Leonard Elschenbroich.
A commissioned piece for an Einstein exhibition in Berlin celebrating the century of the theory of relativity.