I've been looking forward to working on the Marcello sonata for a long time.
My favorite flute piece when I was in high school was a Marcello Sonata in F. I lost track of this sonata when I stopped playing the flute regularly, and, though bits of the piece would come back to me at odd moments, I couldn't remember enough to track it down.
Then, one day, I walked into my flute lesson a little early and heard a friend in her lesson, playing the piece. I recognized it immediately and went out and bought the sheet music, so happy to play it again. (I have since transcribed it for both woodwind/cello quartet and string quartet, but we have not played it yet in either group.)
The Marcello cello sonata is structurally very similar to the flute sonata. (Actually Marcello's other flute sonatas are all kind of similar too.) I tried the cello sonata recently and was disappointed by it. I searched Youtube, looking for a good version of it, to inspire me, but to no avail. (I couldn't find my Suzuki CD.)
We worked on it in my lesson this morning though, and wow, my cello teacher transformed what I thought was a bland piece into a gorgeous one. I was so relieved, to have my regard for Marcello restored. Hopefully, I can do the piece justice.
Here is a version of the flute sonata in F, from the Wikipedia page on Marcello:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedetto_Marcello
It was the festive second movement that I most remembered fragments of, though not quite at that speed. I do love the first movement too, and the fourth is not bad either.
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4 comments:
Thanks for the music history lesson and insight into your MarIcello nom de plume. I was not familiar with the works of this Vivaldi contemporaneous composer.
Hi Marisa, Maricello is just the collision of Marilyn and Cello, not intended to relate to Marcello, but I like the way you have written it, with the capital I dividing the name.
I'm fond of the Marcello cello sonatas too, both because I like the music and because they are a little less difficult than Vivaldi. Did you know that EMB publishes a collection of six? I didn't see them at Shar or SW Strings, but SheetMusicPlus lists it.
Interesting, GGP, about the Marcello cello sonatas. I will look into them. I noticed Sheet Music Plus has Op. 1. Johnson String has Op. 2 and some others individually or in groups of two.
I bought Marcello's 12 Sonatas for flute (first vol., so really only 6 sonatas), which includes basso continuo parts. We played them a little in my early music group, but not recently. I will have to take another look at them. Thanks for reminding me.
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