Beethoven's five sonatas for cello and piano span his career - two from the beginning, one from the middle and two from his late period - so they provide a good framework for talking about the composer. Timo-Veikko Valve and Aura Go have recorded them alongside the complete music for cello and piano by Anton Webern (three works, together lasting under ten minutes) and they'll be in the studio to talk about them and play excerpts.
Alison Cotton is a London-based experimental artist whose viola/drone/voice/soundscape-rich music is very hard to pigeonhole. Her new album Engelchen (meaning 'little angels') follows the incredible story of British opera-loving sisters Ida and Louise Cook who helped save 29 Jewish people before the start of World War II. The sisters used their love of attending operas as a guise for travelling to Germany, where they actually met refugees and helped smuggle their valuables out of the country. Items like jewellery, furs and watches were sold in the UK to help fund their owner's safe passage. The sisters would do things like restitch British labels to the German coats to avoid suspicion from the Nazi border guards... who thought they were just spinsters dressed in finery returning from a weekend trip to the opera.
Timo-Veikko Valve and Aura Go are performing at ACO Up Close: Beethoven Arranged on 20 April in Sydney and 22 April in Melbourne.
Alison Cotton’s Engelchen is out now.
Music in the show:
Title: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69; ii. Scherzo
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Artist: Timo-Veikko Valve (cello) and Aura Go (piano)
Performed Live in The Music Show studio
Title: Three Little Pieces, Op. 11
Composer: Anton Webern
Artist: Timo-Veikko Valve (cello) and Aura Go (piano)
Performed Live in The Music Show studio
Title: Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 102 No. 1; ii. Adagio – Tempo d'andante – Allegro vivace
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Artist: Timo-Veikko Valve (cello) and Aura Go (piano)
Album: Beethoven Cello Sonatas, Webern Works for Cello & Piano
Label: ABC Classic
Title: The Letter Burning; We Were Smuggling People’s Lives; Crepuscle; Engelchen Now
Artist: Alison Cotton
Album: Engelchen
Label: Feeding Tube Records LAUNCH339R
Title: Crepuscle
Composer: Jules Massenet
Artist: Amelita Galli-Curci
Album: Amelita Galli-Curci Volume One
Label: The Rubini Collection GV.578
Title: As The Trees Have Always Known
Artist: Melanie Horsnell
Album: As The Trees Have Always Known (Single)
Label: Independent release
Technical Production by Russell Stapleton and John Jacobs
The Music Show is produced on Gadigal and Gundungurra Land