FRANCK VIOLIN SONATA (CELLO VERSION)

Preserving energy, planning ahead and prioritising phrasing in every line are key to cellist Antonio Meneses’s interpretation of the fourth movement

Teaching & Playing

From Franck Violin Sonata in A major. Urtext edition, version for violoncello, paperbound with marked and unmarked string part. Editor Peter Jost; pf fingering Klaus Schilde, vc fingering Christian Poltéra. Order no. HN 570, ISMN 979-0-2018-0570-2, €24.50. Printed with permission of G. Henle Verlag, Munich © 2013

It was perhaps 35 years ago when I played the Franck Sonata for the first time, and I enjoyed it less than I thought I would. It is the most beautiful piece and there are many good reasons why people transcribe it on to different instruments, but on the cello somehow I was not satisfied with the result. It sounded too dark and sombre, not shining and full of light like the higher violin version. After that I didn’t play it again until around ten years ago, when I noticed something that saved the piece for me: Jules Delsart’s cello transcription is sometimes two octaves lower than the original, rather than just one. I asked myself why: was it to make it easier and more attractive for cellists to play? I also realised that it was possible to transpose parts of the first movement and much of the last movement up one octave, to create a lighter feeling similar to what the violin is able to do. It does make things a little more difficult to play, but I find that now it sounds almost as good on the cello as it does on the violin. It is a violin piece, after all!

Approach to tempo

One of the last times I played this piece was with pianist Menahem Pressler, who took the fourth movement incredibly slowly, in four. At first I felt as though I was running out of breath, but he is a genius musician, so in the end I followed him and we made it work. In general, however, I prefer to think of it in a fluid and more energetic two.

Once you have established a tempo, try to stay with it unless you have a very good reason not to in terms of colour and phrasing. There aren’t many places where it is appropriate to play with real rubato here, although you could add a small ritardando in bar 36 to bring out the change of character in bar 37, or play slightly under tempo from bar 117 to create a new atmosphere for the key change. If you do slow down from bar 117, return to tempo again naturally and imperceptibly through the ascending sequence from bar 126, and avoid a dramatic tempo change for the piano material from the up-beat to bar 133. Some pianists like to play incredibly fast here, without an accelerando beforehand, but to me that sounds musically unconnected and crazy.

PLAYING PHOTO PAOLO CARTA. PORTRAIT PHOTO CLIVE BARDA

THE SOLOIST

NAME ANTONIO MENESES

NATIONALITY BRAZILIAN

STUDIED WITH ANTONIO JANIGRO

RECORDED FOR AUVIDIS FRANCE, AVIE, BIS, DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON, PAN RECORDS

‘If you do too much too soon, there won’t be much more that you can give later, so save your energy’

To see Antonio Meneses’s latest recordings, news and concert schedule, visit www.antoniomeneses.com

A loving couple

If you play the opening line with simplicity, following the melody as it goes down and up again by bringing out the natural accents and retreats, its waves will fit in beautifully with those played by the piano. This will bring the music alive, as though in bars 2–4 you are breathing in, and from the up-beat into bar 5 you are breathing out again. Balance your sound with the piano and make sure that there is always common ground between the two instruments.

Franck wrote this piece as a wedding gift for the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe and his wife Louise Bourdeau de Courtrai, and in this movement it is as though the instruments themselves are the couple. The feeling between them shouldn’t be one of separation: it’s as though one says, ‘After you,’ and the other says, ‘After you,’ with so much love between them. It’s beautiful when each instrument holds a longer note and waits for the other to go ahead.

Pace yourself

It can be easy to get carried away when playing this music, so when you begin, remember that there is much more coming ahead. Think about where you are within each phrase, movement and the piece as a whole, so that you know where you are inside the space that the music gives you. Find out where you need to give your maximum and work back from there, to plan gradations that give the piece a better sense of structure. If you do too much too soon, there won’t be much more that you can give later, so save your energy.

Even when you are playing forte and fortissimo, never forget the importance of phrasing. From the up-beat to bar 30, for example, every note has an accent, but each one has a different emphasis according to its position in the phrase. It’s important to play the accents in such a way that the phrasing doesn’t suffer.

From bar 37 the cello should sound wonderfully legato, without any audible changes of position or string-crossings – almost like a clarinet or flute. This will bring out the fluidity of the music and help it to shine. The piece will suffer if you have any trouble shifting or crossing strings here.

For the modulations into different keys from bar 52, concentrate on bringing out different colours. The new theme that arrives in bar 65 should sound like one simple idea, without accents or audible bow changes. Give each repetition in the ascending sequence its own atmosphere.

Building on what has come before

From bar 87 the brillante passage of accents from bar 30 returns. Again, phrasing is of the greatest importance: if you play every note in the same way, you will kill the music. Don’t think only about what is happening in the moment – think about the direction of the whole phrase. Here you have a sempre crescendo, with a high point to achieve in the phrase from bar 93. Until then, go slowly up the mountain, or when you reach the middle you won’t have the strength to climb all the way to the top. Then all of a sudden the level drops for the subito piano in bar 99, as though you have parachuted from a little aeroplane. If you can do this well, perhaps with a little breath to give some space for you to start anew, you will give the audience a huge surprise. It is a fantastic moment. After this the music starts to wander through different keys. Find a beautiful new colour to bring out each change.

As if from a distance

After bars of searching, the music finally reaches D flat major in bar 117. I have the feeling that the music is coming from very far away here, in this new and distant key. The heroic piano idea that follows from bar 133 creates an enormous contrast, as though Franck has suddenly introduced the brass section of an orchestra before the return of the theme in bar 143. To me this is the pinnacle of the whole piece. It is incredibly dramatic, with huge jumps high on the cello. As if that were not enough, Franck adds extra accented quavers (e) from bar 161 to make the line even more emphatic. Many cellists play an octave higher than written here, just as I do. Then, in bar 169, the piano creates the illusion of a cymbal crash in a magical, glorious moment of arrival.

‘Ration your vibrato and use more for the highest notes, to give more direction to the line’

From here the music continues in fortissimo, but don’t just play every note with maximum vibrato and maximum bow pressure. Never stop phrasing! Ration your vibrato and use more for the highest notes, to give direction to the line – especially for the repeat from bar 175. After the diminuendo brings the music back into the major and the first theme, you might even decide to play the pianissimo without any vibrato at all. Sometimes I add a little glissando to the C sharp in bar 184, but that is a matter of taste.

A happy ending

In the coda from bar 222 Franck writes the distinctive sound of bells into the music, as though he is imagining the happy couple coming out of the church with the whole city watching. After all the moments of sadness, drama and joy expressed within the Sonata, the marriage has happened and the piece finishes on a note of happiness, victory and celebration.

INTERVIEW BY PAULINE HARDING