克里斯蒂安.波特拉 大提琴
凱瑟琳.史托特 鋼琴

在18世紀中, 隱匿的大提琴逐漸從低音樂器組浮現出來, 然後在浪漫時期開始時已經變成作曲家們不可缺少的工具. 羅伯特.舒曼曾經上過大提琴課程, 他非常喜歡這樂器並描述大提琴是一件”美麗的樂器”. 布拉姆斯當一位大提琴家時累積了很多的技巧, 並稱讚大提琴具有”力量與嚴肅的個性”. 在此希望這兩位作曲家不會介意大提琴家克里斯蒂安.波特拉改編他們的作品.

舒曼和布拉姆斯各寫過三首奏鳴曲, 而且各有一首音調都是選擇D小調. 這些D小調作品是波特拉與長期的鋼琴家夥伴凱瑟琳..史托特在這張專輯中表演的. 穿插在兩首奏鳴曲中間的兩個樂章是這兩位作曲家合力貢獻寫出的(F-A-E奏鳴曲) – 舒曼的間奏曲與布拉姆斯的詼諧曲. 波特拉與史托特在結尾演奏的兩首歌曲分別是布拉姆斯與鋼琴家兼作曲家克拉拉.舒曼寫的, 她是羅伯特.舒曼的太太, 也是布拉姆斯終生的朋友.
During the eighteenth century the cello gradually emerged from the anonymity of the continuo group, and by the beginning of the Romantic era the instrument had become an indispensable tool for composers. Robert Schumann, who had himself taken cello lessons, was very fond of it, describing is as a ‘beautiful instrument’; and Johannes Brahms, who acquired considerable skill as a cellist, praised its ‘masculine, serious character’. It is therefore to be hoped that neither composer would object to Christian Poltera’s sensitive adaptations of their works.

Schumann and Brahms wrote three violin sonatas each, both choosing D minor as the key of one of them. These D minor works are the ones that Poltera – together with Kathryn Stott, whose piano parts remain unchanged – offers on this disc. The two sonatas are separated by the movements that the two composers contributed to the collaborative ‘F-A-E Sonata’ – Schumann’s Intermezzo and Brahms’s Scherzo, and Poltera and Stott close the disc with two songs – by Brahms and by Clara Schumann, the pianist and composer, and Robert’s wife and Brahms’s lifelong friend.