Rachmaninov: Sonata for Cello & Piano in G Minor II. Allegro scherzando

Rachmaninov: Sonata for Cello & Piano in G Minor II. Allegro scherzando

This movement is amazing with extreme contrasting sometimes every couple measures. It starts out very intense staccatos in the piano which gives the vision of a field of soldiers marching towards each other. This rather harsh staccato A section returns in bits and pieces throughout the rest of the piece mingling with very opposite sounding sections. The B section of this piece is an absolutely beautiful flowing section. Where as the piano lead a lot during the first section the cello has taken over for the B section. Wow…Yo-yo Ma is WONDERFUL!!!! I love the sound of the cello soooooooo much, and he paints such vivid pictures in your head through his music. I’m in complete awe right now… Okay…moving on. After the A and B section have been played each once through…. Rachmaninov then enters the A section again for a short period before going back into the very floating, light B type section but seems to be too different from the B section so I would consider it a C section. Still with the light feeling but not as much leaping..more step wise motion. In this C section I feel as though I am a soldier that was jsut shot and killed. There is just such a sense of tranquility, and peacefulness that just leaves you speachless. Then, there is a very interesting transition at the end of this section where there is a scale going up and the music gets to sounds a little harsh by the way Ax and Ma are playing it…trying to get you to think we are moving back into the scary A section, and for a second you feel like it was just a trick, and really you were going now where, but then he goes through with it after a short hesitation. The A section plays a little again, and then back into the dramatic contrasting B section to really mix your emotions up again, and before you know it he has worked his way back into the A section. It is a constant flip flop. Now exchanging every other two measures it seems before he finally ends the piece with a very soft development of the A section. Craziness, I don’t know what to feel after that one…except for love for the cello, and how amazingly they can make music.