With much music-making taking place in the Mendelssohn household, young Felix was exposed to a broad diversity of styles, composers, and instruments. Although he was clearly a pianist at heart, his brother Paul somewhat grudgingly played the piano. This was to be Felix's first introduction to the instrument and was sufficient to spawn some much beloved compositions. The first of these was the Op. 17 Variations concertantes and later the Op. 45 B flat major Sonata. By 1841, Mendelssohn began composing for the cello again, ...
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With much music-making taking place in the Mendelssohn household, young Felix was exposed to a broad diversity of styles, composers, and instruments. Although he was clearly a pianist at heart, his brother Paul somewhat grudgingly played the piano. This was to be Felix's first introduction to the instrument and was sufficient to spawn some much beloved compositions. The first of these was the Op. 17 Variations concertantes and later the Op. 45 B flat major Sonata. By 1841, Mendelssohn began composing for the cello again, but this time not for his brother. The result was the brilliant, sunny D major Sonata, a work filled with Mendelssohn's trademark mercurial writing. Performing these works alongside some Piatti transcriptions of selected Songs Without Words is Lithuanian-born cellist David Geringas and pianist Ian Fountain. The disc opens with the D major Sonata, a curious choice as this piece seems to have the most energetic, uplifting ending and would seem better suited for the album's finale....
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