Torleif Thedéen - Kahn: Works for Cello & Piano (2019)

Robert Kahn’s early oeuvre was initially classified primarily in relation
to composers such as Robert Schumann and Robert Franz. During his later
years, however, the influence of Johannes Brahms – which surely was
intentional – became clearly audible. This also applies to the three works
for violoncello and piano recorded here. Brahms held this composer born in
Mannheim in 1865 in such high regard that he even offered him his advice in
compositional matters. And in some of the movements of Kahn’s Cello Sonata
No. 1 – for example, in the mirthful and playful finale – both Brahms and
Schumann are recognizable as very important forerunners who stimulated his
compositional development. Kahn’s tendency to compose short expressive
pieces is displayed in the Three Pieces for Violoncello and Piano op. 25.
The Romance in F minor in the first position is a highly expressive song
piece – to a certain extent a »song without words« in the manner of
Mendelssohn’s piano compositions of this sort. And from the very beginning
of the Cello Sonata No. 2 there can be no doubt about Kahn’s ties to German
Romanticism. The thematic design of the first movement could have been
thought up by Brahms or even by Beethoven before him. Here too the material
is developed and elaborated in the manner of a classically transmitted
sonata movement and with a sovereign command of the compositional craft.