The compositions on this CD encompass an entire century; all of them are French. Of course, they do not represent the entire range of a century of French cello music, bout on the other hand they are all completely un-German! I thought that it would be a good idea to offer the listener of the late 1990s a sort of double upbeat for the masterly Chopin Sonata, in this way arriving at the 1840s by means of two successive steps.
The Poulenc Sonata, although dating from 1948, is more a reflection of the Paris of the 1920s anti-aesthetic decadence and coolly presented cabaret-style sentiment. The work is remarkable for its refined surrealism, tinged with an intriguing hint of Catholic irony and seduction in the slow movement, and the moments in the last movement where the energy, for the first time, acquires a sarcastic tint, succeeded by an even more macabre quality which evokes Prokofiev.....
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