An Evening with Yu Yu Liu and Scott Cuellar

An Evening with Yu Yu Liu and Scott Cuellar

Come join us for a musical evening at the Roy Barnett Recital Hall at UBC! This will be our very first collaboration since our Juilliard years. We're very exctied to share this special night with you all!

The program consists of:

Ludwig van Beethoven Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69

Bohuslav Martinů Cello Sonata No. 2, H. 286

Johannes Brahms Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99

Cellist Yu Yu Liu and pianist Scott Cuellar present a recital of three major sonatas of the cello-piano repertoire: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3, Bohuslav Martinů’s Cello Sonata No. 2, and the monumental Sonata No. 2 by Johannes Brahms. Liu is based in Vancouver, and regularly performs with many of the Vancouver region’s orchestras, including Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Opera, and Victoria Symphony, and others. Cuellar is an assistant professor of piano at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music, and performs regularly in solo, chamber, orchestral, and concerto capacities.

Beethoven’s third cello sonata is one of his most tuneful works, as well as one of his most optimistic and harmonious. The sonata is unusual in that it doesn’t feature a slow movement aside from a short introduction to the finale. Instead, all three movements are generally upbeat in character, despite the fact that Beethoven marked in his original manuscript inter lacrymaset luctus – “amid tears and sorrow.” The first movement is introduced by the cello alone with one of Beethoven’s most memorable melodies, and the pace of the movement remains leisurely and comfortable. The second movement acts as a scherzo, in A minor, with the character of a rustic country dance. The final movement begins with a slow, wanderingintroduction before the finale proper begins, full of life and exuberance.

Martinů’s Cello Sonata No. 2, written in 1941, was written during the composer’s time living in New York City, a city he disliked living in, as he battled homesickness for his Czech homeland. The work is typical of Martinů’s style, featuring an intense nervous energy, rife with syncopation and punctuation in its two fast outer movements. The first movement is relentlessand rhythmically complex, with significant interplay between the piano and cello. It is ferocious and full of tension, culminating in a gut punch at the end of the movement. The slow middle movement is entirely opposite in character, deeply meditative, slowly unfolding across a melancholic landscape. The third movement is similarly brooding and in perpetual motion, with very little space for the usual cheerful send-off seen in many sonata finales, instead retaining its frenetic energy throughout.

Brahms’s two cello sonatas, in E minor and F major, respectively, are some of his most important achievements. The F major sonata manages to radiate immensity despite featuring only two instruments, exuding a sense of nobility from start to finish. The first movement is Brahms at his grandest, with the cello casting soaring melodies and the piano supplying plush textures throughout the movement, as well as the unusual use of measured tremolos in both the cello and piano for fullness of effect. The slow movement is expansive, beginning with chorale-like writing in the piano punctuated by pizzicatos from the cello. What follows is some of Brahms’s most soulful music, the cello melodies inward-looking and deeply personal, with the piano creating ethereal textures. The third movement, usually a scherzo, is typical of Brahms in that it is not much lighter in character compared with the rest of the work. It is full-textured and often shadowy, which allows for the fourth and final movement to be significantly brighter and more exuberant in character; the finale has a light footstep and great optimism, leading to an explosive ending.

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