JOSEF FRIEDRICH DOPPELBAUER (1918-1989): Cello Sonata No. 1, 5 kleine Stücke for Cello and Piano, Sonata for Solo Cello, Prelude and Fugue for Piano. Kleine Suite II for Piano, Invention for Piano.

Description: Thirty-two years separate the oldest and most recent compositions on this album of selected works for cello and piano, covering a broad spectrum of Austrian composer Doppelbauer’s artistic achievement. Extending from fateful weightiness to elegiac narrative and tender restraint, there is an impressive range of emotion in the Fantasie that forms the first movement of the cello sonata, followed by a lively Rondo full of contrasts and a lyrical, melancholy Fuga with a reflective ending. The approach is quite different in the Prelude and Fugue, its harmonic patterns reminiscent of the organ, with a vigorous, almost Classical opening and a fugue ending fortissimo in a major key. The three sonatas for solo cello (No. 1 is recorded here) explore the entire register of the cello and impose great technical demands on the performer. Martin Merker (cello), Anna Adamik (piano).