Neary/Gould/Dowdeswell - Sir Donald Tovey: Chamber Music, Vol. 3 - The Complete Cello Sonatas

Sir Donald Tovey (1875�1940) has long been known as one of the finest writers on music in English � but he saw himself primarily as a composer. His occasionally turbulent friendship with Pau Casals was the spur for a monumental concerto and three sonatas: for solo cello, two cellos and cello with piano. The cello was the ideal instrument for Tovey�s Brahmsian musical language, with its long, singing lines unfolding in effortless counterpoint � though the huge passacaglia that ends the solo sonata also demands a virtuoso technique. The brief Bach arrangement recorded here for the first time arose when the twelve-year-old Tovey added a cello line to one of Bach�s best-known preludes, originally for lute.