Cello sonatas with easy piano parts

[rvankruistum]

Hello everyone,

I posted this on cello forum but then decided it actually made more sense to post it here. 

I'm a cellist and I'm looking for a few pieces that I can play with a pianist friend of mine. I'm classically trained and finished my bachelor's degree a couple of years ago, but she's more on a advanced level than per se a professional one. So I'm looking for some pieces that we can play together (preferably sonatas) where the piano part isn't that extremely difficult. She's been playing Moonlight sonata but I don't really know how that ranks in terms of difficulty for pianists, just so you have an idea what her level of skill might be.

Any and all suggestions are welcome, thx!

[awesom_o]

Hi! Welcome to the forum!

I am actually a pianist and a cellist, so I know the repertoire fairly well. Most of the piano parts are extremely difficult, and will probably prove to be too demanding for your friend unless she is prepared to put in quite a bit of time in learning the parts.

Some of my favourites are by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, and Rachmaninoff. You would probably need a friend with [at least] a bachelor's degree in piano performance to do these kinds of Sonatas any sort of justice.

There are some good ones that are not quite so demanding for the pianist by Vivaldi and Boccherini.

In general though, even the parts for small encore-type pieces like The Swan from Carnival of the Animals, or the Romance by Faure are a lot harder for piano than for cello.

Has your friend done any exams, competitions, or concerts? It's pretty hard to know how good someone is just from hearing that they play the Moonlight Sonata.... the worst amateurs and the best professionals alike play that one quite a bit

[rvankruistum]

Thanks for your reply.

She had classical lessons years back but decided to study as a songwriter in the end. So no examns or competitions or whatever.

I guess I never realised how difficult the piano parts were all this time because I was playing with experienced accompanists. I think it would still be fun to check out some boccherini or whatever.

[awesom_o]

The Boccherini is one of the only ones where I can safely say the cello part is more difficult than the piano part. Your thumb needs to be an absolute beast for it!

Experienced accompanists are in a different league from people who never took part in exams or competitions.

Get a feeling for where her sight-reading abilities currently stand. This will be the major limitation in terms of what you can do together.

The piano reduction for the Haydn Concerto in C major is relatively straightforward in terms of diagnosing her ability. This might be easier to put together ensemble-wise than actual chamber repertoire.