Programme:

Emmanuel Rhene-Baton: Sonata for Cello and Piano

Gabriel Faure: Sonata for Cello and Piano No.2

Interval

Ethan Mitchell: Two Sketches for Cello and Piano

Johannes Brahms: Sonata for Cello and Piano in F Major

Stefan Rogers and Ethan Mitchell began working together whilst studying at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2019. Together they have performed in various recitals as well as the RNCM's Barbirolli Cello Prize in which they performed Alfredo Casella's Sonata for Cello and Piano No.2. They share a common interest in obscure music and are very excited to be starting the recital with an incredible, and yet almost unknown sonata by Emmanuel Rhene-Baton. The sonata clearly takes after the impressionist music of Debussy and Ravel, as well as having a hint of folk music from Normandy weaved into the two outer movements. Despite being written in the same year, and in the same city the Rhene-Baton sonata differs greatly from the late Cello Sonata No.2 by Gabriel Faure. Despite its highly romantic character, Faure's sonata has rather unexpected origins as a funeral march for the 100th anniversary of Napoleon's Death. This can only really be heard in the second movement which shares similarities to Faure's famous Elegie for Cello and Piano (1880) that interestingly was originally intended as the slow movement of a different sonata that was never completed.

 The second half begins with a work by Ethan Mitchell. Two Sketches for Cello and Piano was completed while Ethan was studying at Chetham's School of Music and is formed of two serine movements titled: Morning Walk and Lilac Lake. Both movements share Neoromantic influences as well those of impressionism which contrasts impressively with the final piece of the recital, Brahms' F major Sonata. The F major Sonata is a flamboyant work formed of four movements. Whilst having a firm hold on the Romantic traditions, the sonata is highly progressive both rhythmically and harmonically in a way that can be appreciated differently every time you listen to it.