Cello Sonata (Poulenc)

Sonate pour violoncelle et piano Cello Sonata
Chamber music by Francis Poulenc
Pierre Fournier, the dedicatee and cellist of the premiere
Catalogue	FP 143
Composed	1940 (1940)–1948
Dedication	Pierre Fournier
Performed	18 May 1949 (1949-05-18): Paris

Francis Poulenc completed his Sonate pour violoncelle et piano (Cello Sonata), FP 143, in 1948. He first sketched it in 1940. It was dedicated to the French cellist Pierre Fournier, who had helped with the technical aspects of the cello part, as the composer was unfamiliar with the instrument. The work was published by Heugel in Paris.

When World War II broke out, general mobilization was decreed in France in August 1939. Poulenc was in Noizay and worked on the re-writing of his sextet and the instrumentation of the Cocardes as well as the Fiançailles pour rire. As of June 2, 1940, Poulenc was assigned to Bordeaux and noted some musical bars during a short stay in Cahors. From 18 July 1940, he was demobilized after the armistice, joined a friend in Brive-la-Gaillarde and sketched the cello sonata as well as L'Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant and Les Animaux modèles.

It was not until the aftermath of the war that Poulenc wrote several works including a major one, the Figure humaine cantata, and completed the sonata which was finished after the Calligrammes after the homonymous work by Guillaume Apollinaire at the end of the year 1948. Poulenc resumed the draft begun in 1940 at the request of his dedicatee Pierre Fournier and returned to the writing of the sonata, but he was not inspired by writing for the cello, nor for the violin. Besides, his violin sonata was a failure and was judged by some authors weak, even mediocre. Remained in the papers of the composers for several years, the cello sonata was finally completed only in 1948. It was premiered at salle Gaveau in Paris on 18 May 1949 by Poulenc as the pianist, and Pierre Fournier, the dedicatee, as the cellist.