Bridge, Britten, Debussy: Cello Sonatas Truls Mørk & Håvard Gimse

• Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941): Cello Sonata, H.125:
• 1 Bridge: Cello Sonata, H.125: I. Allegro ben moderato 10:57
• 2 Bridge: Cello Sonata, H.125: II. Adagio ma non troppo - Molto allegro agitato 14:03
• Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918): Cello Sonata, CD 144:
• 3 Debussy: Cello Sonata, CD 144: I. Prologue (Lent, sostenuto e molto risoluto) 04:48
• 4 Debussy: Cello Sonata, CD 144: II. Sérénade (Modérément animé) 03:31
• 5 Debussy: Cello Sonata, CD 144: III. Final (Animé, léger et nerveux) 03:38
• Leoš Janáček (1854 - 1928): Pohádka:
• 6 Janáček: Pohádka: I. Con moto 05:04
• 7 Janáček: Pohádka: II. Con moto 04:35
• 8 Janáček: Pohádka: III. Allegro 03:01
• Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976): Cello Sonata, Op. 65:
• 9 Britten: Cello Sonata, Op. 65: I. Dialogo (Allegro) 07:41
• 10 Britten: Cello Sonata, Op. 65: II. Scherzo-Pizzicato (Allegretto) 02:35
• 11 Britten: Cello Sonata, Op. 65: III. Elegia (Lento) 06:13
• 12 Britten: Cello Sonata, Op. 65: IV. Marcia (Energico) 02:10
• 13 Britten: Cello Sonata, Op. 65: V. Moto perpetuo (Presto) 02:36
• Total Runtime 01:10:52

Info for Bridge, Britten, Debussy: Cello Sonatas

The great Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk makes a triumphal return to chamber music with his regular piano partner Håvard Gimse. The programme features two English composers, Benjamin Britten and his teacher Frank Bridge, whose Cello Sonata was written during the First World War and is tinged with despair and searing emotional force. Britten composed his Cello Sonata in 1961, following his meeting with Mstislav Rostropovich, to whom he dedicated the work. Another person traumatised by the Great War was Debussy, who wrote: ‘It was cowardly to think only of the horrors being committed, without trying to react by rebuilding, insofar as my strength allowed, a little of that beauty which is currently under attack.’ His Cello Sonata (1915) was the first of a series of six sonatas for various instruments that he planned to compose, only managing to write three before his death. As a determined Moravian nationalist, Janáček did not entitle his three-movement work of 1910 ‘sonata’; he called it Pohádka (Fairy tale) and based it on a poem by Vasily Zhukovsky.

Truls Mörk, cello
Havard Gimse, piano

Truls Mørk
The Norwegian national Truls Mørk began by taking lessons from his father. He later continued his studies with Frans Helmerson, Heinrich Schiff and Natalia Shakhowskaya. At the start of his career he won various competitions, including the International Tchaikovsky Competition (1982), the Cassado Cello Competition in Florence (1983) and the Naumberg Competition in New York (1986).

Truls Mørk frequently performs with the world’s leading orchestras, such as the Orchestre de Paris, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has also played with well-known conductors, such as Myung-Whun Chung, Mariss Jansons, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano and Christoph Eschenbach. Truls Mørk gives regular cello recitals in the major concert halls and best known festivals worldwide. A determined champion of contemporary music, he has taken part in more than 30 premiere performances.

The list of Truls Mørk’s recordings is impressive. It comprises many of the great cello concertos for labels such as Virgin Classic, EMI and Deutsche Grammophon, recordings that have won many international awards – Gramophone, Grammy, MIDEM and ECHO Klassik. His most recent recordings are of concertos by Shostakovich with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko and works by Massenet with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Neeme Järvi.

Booklet for Bridge, Britten, Debussy: Cello Sonatas