Antonia Butler (violoncello)
Kathleen Markwell (pianoforte)
If the 'cello has been neglected with regard to concertos, at least it has been rather better served in the way of sonatas, particularly by the nineteenth-century composers.
Brahms's Sonata No. 2, in F, composed in 1887, is a magnificent piece of writing, terse and dramatic in expression and concentrated in thought, and the entire range of the 'cello is exploited with telling effect. The piano part is no less big in design and the music contains a fair number of expression marks that require careful interpretation.