Brahms, Debussy, Kodaly, Tchaikovsky : Fournier (1958 Salzburg)

J. Brahms: Sonate Nr. 2 F-Dur op. 99 fur Violoncello und Klavier
Z. Kodaly: Sonate op. 8 fur Violoncello solo
C. Debussy: Sonate fur Violoncello und Klavier (1915)
P. Tschaikowsky: Variationen A-Dur op. 33 (Rokoko-Variationen)

Pierre Fournier (Violoncello)
Franz Holetschek (Klavier)

The following year Pierre Fournier made his belated Festival debut, again at the Mozarteum, in a recital accompanied by the pianist Franz Holetschek. In the process he confirmed his reputation as the “aristocrat of the cello”, magisterially rising to the manifold challenges of his chosen programme and doing justice not only to the cantabile qualities of Brahms’s Second Cello Sonata op. 99, to the fury and technical recklessness of Kodaly’s op. 8 and to the neoclassical form of Debussy’s Cello Sonata of 1915. His programme culminated in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations. It is no wonder, then, that in the wake of his brilliant debut, Fournier was from then on a welcome visitor to the Salzburg Festival. ( Orfeo )