Cello Sonata in F major

Dedicated to the author and critic Maurice Demaison (1863-1939), the Cello Sonata, dated 1904, was published the following by Demets. It belongs to the corpus of works composed during the artist’s great creative period, after the abandonment of her illegitimate daughter and before the First World War when, in her own salon or on prestigious stages, she presented a series of new pieces reflecting the productions of her time. The Cello Sonata received its first public performance on 14 February 1906 at the Salle Pleyel, as part of a concert organised by the Société des compositeurs de musique. The cellist Louis Feuillard (1872-1941) was accompanied by the composer. This sonata, more than any other of her compositions, was inspired by the works of César Franck, an artist whose classes she had attended at the Paris Conservatoire. She adopted here the cyclic form of which Franck was so fond, but in matters of harmony she went her own way. The three movements follow the common layout for a Classical sonata, fast-slow-fast; on the other hand the choice of keys – F major, D flat major, B flat major – is quite unconventional. The concert of 1906 received few reviews, but those it did receive were full of praise. Charles Cornet, in the Guide musical (25 February), found that the second movement, “with its captivating sound, written in the manner of Schumann, shows a very personal sincerity and a noble sentiment, without making any unnecessary concessions, which is to the author’s great credit.”