Rudolf Matz/ Sonata in E minor for Cello and Piano/ Stephen Feldman & Cesar Blas.

Celebrating Rudolf Matz Part 2: Reintroducing Cellists and Teachers to the more advanced performing repertoire of Master Cello Pedagogue Rudolf Matz (1901-1988). Dr. Stephen Feldman--Professor of Cello at the University of Central Arkansas. 13. Sonata in E minor for Violoncello and Piano (1942), Complete Work. Stephen Feldman, Cello. Cesar Blas, Piano. 00:00 Mvt 1: Allegro moderato 05:25 Mvt 2: Andante 14:14 Mvt 3: Allegro [Find this Sonata and other works by Matz at www.dominismusic.com] Bodo Gospodnetic categorizes this Sonata as the most difficult of the 13 works Matz's published for cello and piano. It is the longest of all of these pieces, and the technical and musical demands are the most extensive. Throughout these 13 works Matz has written many beautiful slow movements, but I consider this Sonata's Andante middle movement to be among the most expressive of these. As the composition date shows, it was written before or during the earliest stages of Matz's formulation of his First Years of Violoncello project. _______________________________________ Croatian born Rudolf Matz (1901-1988) began work on what would become his First Years of Violoncello in the early 1940’s, and he would continue to expand, revise, and make more complete this monumental undertaking for the next 45 years. His interest and experience as a teacher, performer, composer and author informed the content of these technical exercises, etudes, and concert pieces, as did his early life experience as a competitive sprinter and his later interest in and study of anatomy, physiology, and ergonomics. Furthermore, Matz’s work with the Vaclav Huml, a Prague-trained violinist and former student of Sevcik, and Antonio Janigro, a virtuoso cellist well-versed in the modernizations of cello technique by Casals by way of Janigro’s study with Diran Alexanian provided a model and added richness and depth to Matz’s endeavor. The 31 volumes of Matz’s First Years of Violoncello were published in Zagreb between 1946 and 1971, but these editions are no longer in print. Many of the works have been newly published by Dominis Music beginning in 1982—a publishing house established by Matz’s former student and friend, Slobodan Gospodnetic. All of the pieces I will add to this channel in the first and second parts of this Celebration of Rudolf Matz are published by Dominis Music and are widely available.