jorge a. bosso

SONATA FOR CELLO AND PIANO

First performance: May 2009, Birmingham, UK

Eduardo Vassallo, cello
Mark Bebbington, piano

Duration: 25’

Passacaglia - Dialogo I
Fuga- Ripresa ( presto)
Preghiera - Dialogo II
Dialogo III – Epilogo

As this work is a transcription of my former Piano Trio, I quote the program notes from its performance at Martha Argerich Festival 2006, in Lugano Switzerland:

Jorge Bosso’s Trio draws its inspiration from a Georgian folk tune. The author heard the tune used as an accompaniment to a ballet from Taiwan, and its linear, almost hypnotic nature, whose beauty lies in its intrinsic simplicity, continued to be associated, in the composer’s mind, with the ballet’s choreography. He says: “A man walked in, stage left, with his hands clasped in a gesture of prayer. From above, a thin stream of rice continued to fall on his head, and this made a continuing sound. At the same time, on the other side of the stage a row of women and a row of men danced, holding tree branches in their hands. These two elements seemed to contrast with each other. I think that the choreographer had managed to synthesise a fundamental concept: the vertical nature of mankind’s ultimate end in his search for a higher level of existence and the symbol of endlessly falling grain. The individual and his conscience are set in opposition to the basic nourishment that comes from on high toward the place of origin. To transform personal experiences into sound is rather difficult. And yet I believe that contrasting man in his solitude and the Divine, on the one hand, with the search for answers to the need for transcendence, on the other, is in itself the ultimate goal of art.”
Composed in December 2004, the piece was first performed at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow on February 2005 by Irina Kandinskaya, piano; Dora Schwarzberg, violin; and the composer playing the cello.