Profs. Claude Cymerman and Eric Edberg Collaborate on Wednesday Recital

February 5, 2006

February 5, 2006, Greencastle, Ind. - Professors Eric Edberg (cello; pictured at left) and Claude Cymerman (piano; seen below) of the DePauw University School of Music will perform a faculty recital on Wednesday, February 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Thompson Recital Hall. The concert, which is free and open to the public, will feature sonatas by Claude Debussy and César Franck as well as Gaspar Cassadó’s Suite for Solo Cello.

"It's always a great joy to play with Claude Cymerman, especially so with this recital," says Edberg. "Claude has played both the Debussy and Franck sonatas many times, and it is a great privilege to perform them with an artist who knows them so intimately." 

For Edberg, this recital will represent the first time that he has played Franck's sonata. Originally written for violin, the famous cellist Pablo Casals contended that the work was actually intended for him as a cello sonata, but it became a violin sonata as a wedding gift for the great French violinist Eugene Ysaÿe. The second edition of the piece supports this claim as it uses the title “for Violin or Cello” and contains a cello part transcribed by Franck’s friend, the French cellist Jules Delsart.

Performed in between the two French masterworks, Gaspar Cassadó's Suite for Solo Cello is also connected to Pablo Casals, as its author was one of Casals' first protégés. Commenting on this technically taxing work, Edberg exclaims, "It is full of all sorts of virtuoso effects, and I've spent a good portion of my recent sabbatical practicing it!"

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