Nuala McKenna - Solo

For her debut album the Irish-German Nuala McKenna (1993) has chosen three works which share one great attribute: expression to the limit. Gy�rgy Ligeti's extends the compositional style to which his fellow Hungarian composers were confined, also experimenting with electronic music, which one can feel in his Sonata for Solo Cello.

Zoltan Kodaly created one of the major works of the cello repertoire, Sonata in B minor for solo cello. He requires the performer to transcend his technical skills. It's a tribute to Hungarian folk music and conjures contrasts of wide Hungarian landscapes as well as dancing in a rural pub. Benjamin Britten's Cello Suite No. 1 is the first of three which were a result of the friendship between him and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. Britten tells a spellbinding story filled with sometimes strange and perplexing sounds.