Piece: Sonate pour Basson et Piano
Composer: Charles Koechlin (1867-1950)
Soloist: Zeynep Köylüoglu
Pianist: Tobias Bredohl
Movement 1 (Andante moderato - Allegretto scherzando) 0:00
Movement 2 (Nocturne) 2:59
Movement 3 (Final) 6:27
Charles Koechlin was born in 1867 to a large family which lived in Alsace, a French region bordering Switzerland and Germany. Though he was raised in Paris, Koechlin always claimed his Alsatian heritage as a defining characteristic that set him apart from his Parisian peers.
Koechlin’s provincial heritage may have created a barrier between the composer and the modernist movement of the ‘20s. The lifestyle of Parisian elites was one of cocktails and foxtrots, while Koechlin was hardworking and practical. He is quoted numerous times throughout his life saying he composed for his own pleasure and not for the people. “I do not write for a public, just as I do not breathe or walk for a public… I write in order to share my thoughts and to say what I love”.
Despite their differences, composer Erik Satie invited Koechlin to join a group of modernist composers called Les Nouveaux Jeunes (The New Youth) in 1918. The Sonate Op. 71, was written later that year.
The sonata’s first movement, Andante moderato - Allegretto scherzando, explores first the meditative, beautiful side of the bassoon before a playful middle section and return to the opening. The second movement, titled Nocturne, references the tradition of a Nocturne (night music) by composers like Chopin with its sleepy piano accompaniment, while also referencing composers of the day with an irregular 6-and-a-half beat pattern. In the third movement, Koechlin morphs the first movement’s opening melody into a rousing dance theme. This excitement quickly dissolves into a murky texture punctuated by themes from throughout the piece, before ending triumphantly with an exhilarating coda.