Album DescriptionFelix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) wrote relatively little chamber music. The composer Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832) wrote of his pupil Mendelssohn in a letter to Goethe: "He plays the piano like a devil and there is no holding him back on stringed instruments." The experience in these instrumental areas is set off especially in the Sonatas for Cello and Piano B major Op. 45 and D major Op. 58. The cantabile violoncello writing is combined with an agile, flowing, and most brilliant piano part. In 1845 a further piece for violoncello and piano followed these two sonatas: the "Lied ohne Worte" ("Song without words") D major Op. 109. The genesis of this work--as in the case of the Sonatas Op. 45 and Op. 58--leaves many questions unanswered, since it was published from his effects after the composer's death.