GNATTALI — Sonata for Cello and Guitar

Radamés Gnattali : Sonata for Cello and Guitar Chen Cao, cello Xiaobo Pu, guitar Performed on Friday, October 27, 2017 Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia Radamés Gnattali is recognized as one of the great Brazilian composers of the 20th century. In addition to his considerable output for orchestra and chamber ensembles, Gnattali worked for many years as an arranger, composer, and conductor for Brazilian radio and television. His Sonata for Cello and Guitar, composed in 1969, demonstrates his fluency in both popular and learned idioms—a common feature of South American musical culture that one also finds in the nuevo tango of the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla. In this work Gnattali highlights the gorgeous interplay of a pair of instruments all too rarely heard together. The piece is in three movements—allegro comodo, adagio, and con spirito—with the outer movements (and especially the last) unmistakably driven by dance rhythms.