CD 1:
Beethoven:
Cello Sonata No. 5, Op. 102/2

Mendelssohn:
Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 58

Brahms:
Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 38

CD 2:
J. S. Bach:
Cello Suite No. 6, BWV 1012

Fauré:
Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 117
Papillon, Op. 77

Paganini/Silva:
Introduction and Variations on ‘Dal tuo stellato soglio’

Schumann:
Fantasiestücke, Op. 73

CD 3:
Casella:
Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 45

Kodály:
Sonata for cello solo, Op. 8

Tortelier:
Trois p’tits tours

Paul Tortelier (1914-1990), one of the outstanding cellists of his generation, set benchmarks. All the recordings presented here are first releases; Tortelier never re-recorded Schumann’s Fantasiestücke and the same is true of the sonata by Casella and two of his own Trois p’tits tours. In these chamber and solo works from Bach through to early modernism, Tortelier’s expressive and elegant playing comes into its own.

Paul Tortelier was, alongside Pierre Fournier, the greatest French cellist of his time and one of the most sought-after internationally. He launched his career, which lasted well over 50 years, in the late 1930s. In 1948, a tour of Europe took him to Berlin: until his death in 1990 he was to return many times to the city to perform concerts and make radio recordings. His studio recordings for the RIAS are now released for the very first time. He is accompanied by the RIAS house pianists of the time, Klaus Billing and Lothar Broddack.

This edition presents chamber music recordings from the archives of Deutschlandfunk Kultur: an impressive illustration of this great cellist’s enormous range of repertoire at an early peak of his career. Three works included here are now available for the first time on CD in his interpretations: Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Op. 73, Alfredo Casella’s cello sonata in C major and Tortelier’s own Trois p’tits tours, of which only the third piece, Le Pitre, has previously been available on disc.

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Recordings: RIAS Funkhaus, Berlin – Studio 7, February 25, 1964 (Beethoven, Mendelssohn); RIAS Funkhaus, Berlin – Studio 6, February 13, 1949 (Brahms); September 9, 1949 (Bach); RIAS Funkhaus, Berlin – Studio 7, January 30, 1962, Febr 25, 1964 (Faure).