Works for Violoncello and Piano

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s chamber music for violoncello and piano comprises three works, all of which originate from his early compositional period and whose genesis is closely linked to people in his circle at the time.

Seventeen-year-old Rachmaninoff wrote the “Lied”, which was first published posthumously, during a stay with the family of his future wife Natalia. He dedicated this to her cousin Vera. “Prélude et Danse orientale” op. 2 is dedicated to his good friend, the cellist Anatoli Brandoukoff, with whom he played the “Prélude” in the first public concert consisting entirely of his own works. Also dedicated to Brandoukoff is the Sonata op. 19 which is one of the first works that Rachmaninoff wrote after the years of depression he suffered following the failure of his first symphony. Particularly in Opus 2 and the Sonata, it is evident that Rachmaninoff gave the violoncello and piano an equal standing.

For this edition, editor Daniela Macchione draws on the first editions published in collaboration with Rachmaninoff as well as the relevant autographs, which are accessible in the National Museum of Music in Moscow and the Library of Congress in Washington DC.