Franco Alfano - Cello Sonata (score video)

If you’re like me, someone who really likes the sound and characteristics of the cello, then you are definitely going to love this sonata. This cello sonata (composed between 1925 and 1926, as a commission from American pianist and patron of music Elizabeth Sprague and performed for the first time in 1929 in Rome) is composed of three movements, each of them offering something unique, especially the second movement, which I find incredibly fun to listen to. For me, this is the perfect work to exemplify what this instrument can do: its composer, Franco Alfano (1875 – 1954), explores pretty much every bit of its register, dynamics and, in general, its possibilities: staccato, trills, fast and slow tremolo in both single notes and chords, portamento, harmonics, pizzicato notes and chords being executed both upwards and downwards in the same stave… You name it; this sonata has it all. However, while the cello is without a doubt the main voice in most of this composition, its companion definitely