Cello sonata

A cello sonata is a piece written in sonata form, often with the instrumentation of a cello taking solo role with piano accompaniment. Some of the earliest cello sonatas were composed in the 18th century by Francesco Geminiani and Antonio Vivaldi; subsequent famous cello sonatas include those by Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Fryderyk Chopin, and Richard Strauss.

The following list contains cello sonatas with or without accompanying instruments. See the See also list for more comprehensive lists divided up into solo and accompanied works.

List of major cello sonatas

• Charles-Valentin Alkan
• Sonate de Concert, Op. 47 (c. 1857)
• Samuel Barber
• Cello Sonata in C minor, Op. 6 (1932)
• Arnold Bax
• Cello Sonata (1923)
• Cello Sonatina (1933)
• Legend-Sonata (1943)
• Ludwig van Beethoven
• Cello Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 5/1 (1796)
• Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 5/2 (1796)
• Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69 (1808)
• Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 102/1 (1815)
• Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102/2 (1815)
• Easley Blackwood Jr.
• Cello Sonata, Op. 31
• Johannes Brahms
• Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38 (1862–65)
• Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99 (1886)
• Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, "Rain", Op. 78 (1878–79), transcribed for cello by Paul Klengel
• Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100 (1886), transcribed for cello by Laszlo Varga
• Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 (1886–88), transcribed for cello by Laszlo Varga
• Frank Bridge
• Cello sonata in D minor, H. (Hindmarsh) 125 (1913–17)
• Benjamin Britten
• Sonata in C for Cello and Piano, Op. 65 (1961)
• Elliott Carter
• Cello Sonata (1948)
• Frédéric Chopin
• Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65 (1845–46)
• George Crumb
• Sonata for Solo Cello (1955)
• Claude Debussy
• Cello Sonata in D minor (1915)
• Frederick Delius
• Cello Sonata (1916)
• Felix Draeseke
• Cello Sonata in D major, Op. 51 (1890)
• Antonín Dvořák
• Cello Sonata in F major (1871); lost (cello part extant)
• George Enescu
• Cello Sonata in F minor, Op. 26/1 (1898)
• Cello sonata in C major, Op. 26/2 (1935)
• Heitor Villa-Lobos
• Cello Sonata No. 2, W103 (1916)
• Gabriel Fauré
• Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 109 (1917)
• Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 117 (1921)
• César Franck
• Violin Sonata in A major, transcribed with the composer's approval for cello by Jules Delsart. See
• John Foulds
• Cello Sonata (1905, rev. 1927)
• François Francoeur (attrib.)
• Sonata for Cello and Piano in E major (actually a cello arrangement of a Louis Francoeur violin sonata)
• Peter Racine Fricker
• Cello Sonata (1956)
• Zoltán Gárdonyi
• Cello Sonata (1944)
• Edvard Grieg
• Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 36 (1883)
• Paul Hindemith
• Cello Sonata, Op. 11/3 (1919)
• Sonata for Cello Solo, Op. 25/3 (1923)
• Cello Sonata (1948)
• Vagn Holmboe
• Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 101 (1968–69)
• Arthur Honegger
• Cello Sonata in D minor, H.32 (1920)
• Stephen Hough
• Sonata for Cello and Piano (left hand) (2014)
• Bertold Hummel
• Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 2 (1950)
• Sonata brevis, Op. 11a (1955)
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel
• Sonata in A major, Op. 104

• John Ireland
• Cello Sonata in G minor (1923)
• Giuseppe Maria Jacchini
• Sonata No. 3 in C major (1697)
• Joseph Jongen
• Cello Sonata in C minor, Op. 39 (1913)
• Dmitry Kabalevsky
• Cello Sonata in B flat major, Op. 71 (1962)
• Zoltán Kodály
• Cello Sonata, Op. 4 (1907)
• Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8 (1915)
• Cello Sonatine (1923)
• Josef Labor
• Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 7 (1896)
• Édouard Lalo
• Cello Sonata in A minor (1856)
• Lowell Liebermann
• Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 3 (1978)
• Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 61 (1998)
• Cello Sonata No. 3, Op. 90 (2005)
• Cello Sonata No. 4, Op. 108 (2008)
• György Ligeti
• Sonata for Solo Cello
• Albéric Magnard
• Sonata for Cello in A, Op. 20 (1910)
• Bohuslav Martinů
• Cello Sonata No. 1, H 277
• Cello Sonata No. 2, H 286
• Cello Sonata No. 3, H 340
• Felix Mendelssohn
• Cello Sonata No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 45 (1838)
• Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58 (1842–43)
• Ignaz Moscheles
• Cello Sonata, Op. 34 in B-flat major
• Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 121 in E major
• Georges Onslow
• Cello Sonatas 1, 2 and 3, Op. 16/1-3 (1820)
• Henrique Oswald
• Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 21 (1898)
• Cello Sonata No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 44 (1916)
• Hubert Parry
• Cello Sonata in A major (1879–83)
• Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
• Cello Sonata in F major (uncertain attribution)
• Francis Poulenc
• Cello Sonata, FP 143 (1948)
• Sergei Prokofiev
• Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 119 (1949)
• Sonata for Solo Cello in C minor, Op. 134 (unfinished)
• Sergei Rachmaninoff
• Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19 (1901)
• Maurice Ravel
• Sonata for Violin and Cello (1920–22)
• Max Reger
• Cello Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 5 (1892)
• Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 28 (1898)
• Cello Sonata No. 3 in F major, Op. 78 (1904)
• Cello Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 116 (1910)
• Edmund Rubbra
• Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 60 (1946)
• Camille Saint-Saëns
• Cello Sonata No. 1 in C minor, Op. 32
• Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 123
• Philipp Scharwenka
• Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 116
• Alfred Schnittke
• Cello Sonata No. 1 (1978)
• Cello Sonata No. 2 (1993/4)
• Franz Schubert
• Sonata for Arpeggione in A minor, D. 821 is often transcribed for cello.
• Dmitri Shostakovich
• Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40 (1934)
• Viola Sonata, Op. 147 (1975), transcribed for cello by Daniil Shafran
• Charles Villiers Stanford
• Cello Sonata No. 1 in A major, Op. 9 (1878)
• Cello Sonata No. 2 on D minor, Op. 39 (1893)
• Richard Strauss
• Sonata in F major for cello and piano (1882)
• Antonio Vivaldi
• At least 9 cello sonatas
• Kurt Weill
• Sonata for Cello and Piano (1920)

Chronology of major cello sonatas

The following list (inevitably incomplete) tries to place the major sonatas and equivalent works for cello and piano or cello solo in chronological order of completion. It will be susceptible to uncertainty of dates, and whether original or revised versions are definitive.

See also

• List of compositions for cello and piano
• List of solo cello pieces

References

External links

• Complete Scores of Many Cello Sonatas
• Repertoire for Solo Cello
• Some Composers of Cello Works Dates ought to be double-checked against other sources for they do not always agree.